At OVAM (the Public Waste Agency of Flanders) we read with great interest studies on (the prevention of) food waste. Please find below and in attachment some comments to the study, that might help to further develop the study.
General comments:
it is not always clear what the purpose of the study is, especially regarding the mentioning of best practices (list is not exhaustive, but it is also not clear on what basis best practices have been selected)
until now, the recommendations are rather vague and mainly point issues we are already aware of. Now that the awareness about food waste is high, policymakers need more concrete recommendations (e.g. how to make possible more coherence between different policy domains that address food issues) so that they can evaluate whether the measures they are taking or planning to take could be successful. Policies regarding the prevention of food waste are already in place in many countries, and there are frameworks that enable policy evaluations, so evaluating existing policies might help to come up with more concrete recommendations.
regarding the question on different sorts of quantifying food losses: it all depends on what the purpose is (what do we want to measure? why do we want to measure it?)
question regarding which actors can make real radical change: in case we really want radical change, it will not come from one specific actor, but from a system change. It is striking how the global food system and how society works is rarely questioned. Wouldn't it be more useful to think about production - distribution - consumption and how the food system can be changed? If we do not such a rethink, we will probably move no further than small changes, and then radical change will never happen.
Best regards,
Sofie Bouteligier
European and international policy team
Policy Innovation Service
Waste and Materials Management Department
Sofie Bouteligier