F4I – POLICY

POLICY as part of FOOD4INCLUSION PROJECT

As part of the FOOD4INCLUSION project, SAFE aims to contribute to the social inclusion of people with food-related disabilities, improve access to healthy food for the poorest segments of the population, promote food literacy and protect the health and well-being of children. In pursuit of these objectives, SAFE is engaged in multiple activities — webinars, policy papers, production of information material, training — aimed at raising awareness on these issues, improving consumer protection in food legislation and influencing policies on food waste, food donation and redistribution, access to food, support for children, and transparency of food information.

The objectives of combating poverty, promoting social inclusion and reducing inequalities included in the European Pillars of Social Rights, as well as mitigating food loss and waste are transversal issues, and which are constantly present in SAFE’s actions.  

SAFE’s advocacy actions to fight food waste included joint statements, responses to public consultations, and position papers on issues that include, but are not limited to: the urgency of recovering wasted food, the current barrier to food donation and the EU Waste Policy, waste reduction targets within the Farm to Fork Strategy, how to prevent food loss and waste occurring at all stages of the food chain. 

Currently, there is no harmonised legislation that covers food redistribution and food donation due to liability issues diverging consistently in different Member States. For this reason, SAFE established an advocacy campaign to urge the EU decision-makers to propose harmonized rules over food donation.  As effective redirection of food surpluses is playing an essential role in combating food poverty and supporting the European Pillar of Social Rights, SAFE wrote a policy report on this topic. The goal of this document is to highlight the current barriers to food donation and aim at fostering the social focus on different potential levels by proving examples of best practices. Additionally, this report addresses concerns like the liability of donors over food safety, confusion over date labeling on food products, food redistribution in 2022 in Europe during Covid -19 and the Ukraine war crisis, and many other relevant key points including the existing legislation loops.  

On the other side, SAFE is actively advocating for more targeted and specific measures to reduce food loss and waste and is currently involved in several projects that aim to be major driving forces in decreasing the amount of food wasted. These projects include HORIZON projects like ZeroW, and SISTERS, or the ‘One Man’s Waste is Another Man’s Treasure’ project in Belgium. 

Within the framework of its advocacy against food waste, SAFE contributed to the Food Waste Prevention Initiative survey, and participated in a joint position paper on the revision of the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) urging urgent action that is required to tackle the waste crisis. Moreover, SAFE also responded to the Public Consultation on the proposal for a revision of Directive 2088/98/EC (the “Waste Framework Directive”) related to the part on food waste reduction targets, notably referring to potential confusions created by the date-marking schemes on food products, and the need of clearer labeling requirements. 

Report on Food donations

With global poverty on the rise and inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic, vulnerable households with reduced incomes across Europe have been considered the primary victims of this crisis as they were not able to cope with surging retail prices. This often led to a reduction in quality and quantity of the food purchased. The objectives of combating poverty, promoting social inclusion and reducing inequalities included in the European Pillars of Social Rights are transversal issues which are present in SAFE’s actions. For SAFE, there is a current and developing need to enable the disadvantaged groups to access affordable and quality food.

Replays from the ESF workshop are available on our Youtube channel!

On 5th December 2022, SAFE hosted the Webinar “Eating Habits, Mindset and Opportunities. Perspectives on food inclusion and accessibility.”

One in four Europeans suffers from at least one form of poverty, and 43 million Europeans cannot afford a quality meal every second day. The Covid-19 crisis has led many countries to face growing levels of severe food insecurity, with the Agricultural Commodity Price Index reaching a peak since 2013. With global poverty on the rise and inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic, vulnerable households with reduced incomes have been considered the primary victims of this crisis. This often led to a reduction in quality and quantity of the food purchased. Sometimes the problem even affects households from the middle class, which globally increased from 1.8 billion to 3.5 billion people and is expected to grow and reach 5.3 billion by 2030.

The objectives of combating poverty, promoting social inclusion and reducing inequalities included in the European Pillars of Social Rights are transversal issues guiding many of SAFE’s actions. For SAFE, there is a current and developing need to enable the disadvantaged groups to access affordable and quality food.

During the meeting, panellists will discuss reports and studies coming from different EU institutions, including JRC, Universities, and national institutes.

The aim of the webinar is:

– to analyse the relationship between access to food and social conditions;

– to deal with the correlation between nutritional problems and the type of food that disadvantaged people can afford;

– to provide an analysis of data showing poverty is increasing;

– to deep dive into the problem of access to healthy food from a psychological perspective.

Replay from the webinar are available below: