The Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA) of the European Parliament set up a new project titled "Technology Options for Feeding 10 Billion People". The project investigated technological options for the improvement of global food supply. ITAS has taken over two sub-studies. One of them is named "Options for Cutting Food Waste".

The aim of this study is to support the resolution of the European Parliament to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025. The resolution notes that every year in Europe a growing amount of healthy, edible food – some estimates say up to 50% – is lost along the entire food supply chain and becomes waste. The European Parliament points out that by 2020 food waste will increase by 40% unless additional preventive actions or measures will be taken. A study published on behalf of the European Commission estimates annual food waste generation in the 27 Member States at approximately 89 million tons, varying considerably between individual countries and the various sectors, without even considering agricultural food waste or fish catches returned to the sea.

Even though existing figures about the extent of food waste vary greatly, there is no doubt about the fact that significant amounts of food are wasted every year. The reduction of losses along the food chain, from farm to fork, is an important approach to increase the efficiency of food utilisation and to reduce negative environmental and economic effects associated with food wastage.

The study summarises existing research on food waste generation in Europe and gives insight into the reliability of the available data on the basis of own model calculations. Moreover, it deals with the underlying definitions of the terms "food waste" and "food loss". Main focus lies on the discussion of measures to avoid food waste which are suggested in the current debate or have already been implemented. Besides persuasive, regulatory, and economic approaches, the study investigates the potential of management options and marketing techniques as well as technologies that change behaviour and technologies that minimise food waste or spoilage caused by retailers and consumers. The whole range of initiatives, from political, over commercial up to private activities is considered and experiences gained in the different countries are summarised. The results of a pilot survey on household food waste carried out by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra in collaboration with the University of Bologna and the KIT fed into the study as well.