Public Consultation on the Draft National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap

Food waste is a global problem that has environmental, social and economic consequences. Growing, processing and transporting food all uses significant amounts of resources.

Food waste can arise for a number of reasons at a number of different points in the food supply chain. Ireland generated approximately 1.1 million tonnes of food waste in 2019 (not including food waste from primary production). Approximately half of food waste is estimated to come from the processing and manufacturing sector with the remainder arising from households, restaurants and food service, and retail and distribution.

The urgency and challenge of addressing food waste is highlighted at international level through Goal 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: "By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses".

The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy sets out a number of commitments in relation to food waste prevention. These include working with a range of stakeholders to develop a Food Waste Prevention Roadmap that sets out a series of actions to deliver the reductions necessary to halve our food waste by 2030, meet any other related targets, and promote our transition to a circular economy.

We have prepared a draft National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap which sets out information on:

• Context on food waste and the components of the food supply chain that are included in the roadmap (primary production, manufacturing and processing, retail and distribution, restaurants and food services, and households)
• How Ireland will establish its national baseline data on food waste from which we will achieve a 50% reduction by 2030
• Interim milestones and targets on the way to that 2030 target
• How we will ensure a robust national system for food waste measurement and reporting is established in order to meet Ireland’s reporting obligations and to monitor Ireland’s progress in meeting its UN and EU commitments over the next decade
• A commitment to work together, enhance food waste measurement, and identify and implement key priority actions along the food supply chain to help deliver on Ireland’s commitments on food waste and loss prevention
• The approach to food waste segregation, food donation, the role of research and innovation, and green public procurement in relation to food waste prevention
• A commitment to deliver sustained communications and awareness on food waste prevention;
• How we will establish a monitoring and evaluation framework to check progress of key activities and update the roadmap accordingly

We invite the public and interested parties to make submissions on the draft Roadmap.

We have provided a template below which contains questions you may find useful when making your submission. You don’t have to answer all questions, and you are free to comment on any part of the draft Roadmap.

The closing date for submissions has been extended to 5.30pm 28 March 2022

Submissions should be sent by email to foodwaste@decc.gov.ie or by post to:

Public Consultation on the Draft National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap

Waste Policy and Enforcement Division

Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

Newtown Road

Wexford

Y35 AP90

We are committed to engaging with stakeholders in a clear, open and transparent manner. Any person or organisation can make a submission in relation to this consultation. All submissions and feedback will be considered before the Roadmap is finalised and published.

Please note that responses to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI), Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007-2014 (AIE) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please also note that we intend to publish the contents of all submissions received to this consultation on its website. We will redact personal data prior to publication. In responding to this consultation, parties should clearly indicate where their responses contain personal information, commercially sensitive information or confidential information which they would not wish to be released under FOI, AIE or otherwise published.

We would like to draw your attention to our Data Privacy Notice which is available on our website and explains how and when we collect personal data, why we do so and how we treat this information. It also explains your rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how you can exercise those rights.

Industry Submissions

Group Submissions

Individual Submissions