European Union action to combat food waste is 'fragmented', 'intermittent' and should do more, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors.
EU policies have the potential to reduce food waste but their potential is not being 'exploited'.
Current estimates indicate that, globally, around one third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted or lost. This waste represents huge economic and environmental costs.
"Our report to the Commission identified a number of missed opportunities and potential improvements which would not require new legislative initiatives or more public money," said Bettina Jakobsen, the member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report.
"What we need now is better alignment of existing policies, better coordination, and a clear policy objective to reduce food waste."
'Action plan'
The auditor's report, entitled 'Combating food waste: an opportunity for the EU to improve the resource-efficiency of the food supply chain,' called for the EU to create an 'action plan' and to resolve legal obstacles to food donations.
"Our recommendations on how to develop future policy have either been ignored or only partially accepted, while the draft guidelines just pass the problem on to the Member States", she added.
They found that the EU had not contributed to a resource-efficient food supply chain by combating food waste effectively.
Food waste is a problem along the entire food supply chain, say the auditors, and action should be targeted all along the chain.
The emphasis should be put on prevention, as the benefits of avoiding waste outweigh the cost of dealing with it later.
The auditors found that there had been a notable lack of assessment of the impact of EU policies on the fight against food waste.
Major policy areas such as agriculture, fisheries and food safety all have a role to play and could be used to combat food waste better.
