Abstract
Food waste is a global problem, one that has moved up the public and political agenda in recent years. Food is at the core of the United Nations’ (UN) ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. Food waste prevention is also highlighted as a priority area in the ‘2015 Circular Economy Package’. Food waste is an important indicator of sustainability because it embodies the sum of resources being used to produce uneaten food, and food waste disposal has an environmental, economic, and social impact. Directive 2018/851 established amendments to the food waste regulatory regime, including the definition of a food waste category and general provisions, which were related to food waste, providing a strong emphasis on waste prevention and the reporting of data in connection with food waste. New EU food waste rules should be implemented at the national level. Comparative research is needed for identifying any potential implementation problems. Such research will be carried out using case studies of Poland and Lithuania.
Highlights
Food waste is a global problem, one that has moved up the public and political agenda in recent years
Food waste is an important indicator of sustainability because it embodies the sum of resources being used to produce uneaten food, and food waste disposal has an environmental, economic, and social impact
It has been hypothesised that changes to legal acts in Poland and Lithuania which regulate waste during the process of implementing the guidelines of the new ‘Waste Directive 2018/851’ may have contributed to an improvement in the general situation regarding food waste in both of those countries
Summary
Food waste is a global problem, one that has moved up the public and political agenda in recent years. Various studies have shown that between a third and a half of the world’s food production is not consumed, leading to the generation of negative impacts throughout the food supply chain, including in households While the food value chain is responsible for significant resource and environmental pressures, an estimated 20% of the total food produced is either lost or wasted in the EU (EC, 2015; Stenmarck et al, 2016). Global food production must increase by 70% by 2050 in order to meet the demands of the world’s rapidly growing population levels (EC, 2012). Food has a vital importance as a resource given its intrinsic usage value for humanity as one of the few basic human needs
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