Project Wasteless is the national level

food waste The causes of food going uneaten are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during food production, production, food processing, processing, Food distribution, distribution, Grocery store, retail and food service sales, and Social clas ...

prevention programme of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, part of the European and global food loss and food waste prevention initiative, a member organisation of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste. Project Wasteless was launched by the

National Food Chain Safety Office National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih/NFCSO) is the integrated food safety authority of Hungary, established on 15 March 2012. History The roots of NFCSO are dated back to the first officially organized animal health service founded by the An ...

in 2016 with the co-funding of the EU LIFE Framework. In 2023 Project Wasteless was identified as a European good practice by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, based on the findings of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum, and also received the EU LIFE Award, as one of the top 3 environmental protection projects in Europe.

History

The idea of Project Wasteless was founded b
Gyula Kasza
and Barbara Szabó-Bódi in 2015. In 2016 their project proposal received a 4-year co-funding by the European

LIFE Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

Framework, which helped the development of the programme within the National Food Chain Safety Office. 'Wasteless' is a dierect translation of the Hungarian phrase 'Maradék nélkül', the programme's original title. The programme received inspiration from the UK based

Love Food, Hate Waste Love Food Hate Waste is a campaign, launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme in 2007, with the aim of reducing the amount of food waste in the United Kingdom. The campaign has been promoted and circulated by many green sites. The campa ...

campaign, organised by

WRAP Wrap, WRAP or Wrapped may refer to: Storage and preservation * Gift wrap or wrap paper, used to enclose a present * Overwrap, a wrapping of items in a package or a wrapping over packages * Plastic wrap, a thin, clear, flexible plastic used to co ...

, and the Dutch United Against Food Waste initiative, as well as the work of

Wageningen University & Research Wageningen University & Research (also known as WUR) is a public research university in Wageningen, Netherlands, specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. It is a globally important center fo ...

. In 2018, the team of Project Wasteless was invited by the European Commission to host the European LIFE Food Waste Platform Meeting ‘Effective Solutions for Prevention and Treatment’ with 120 international participants that took place in Budapest on 8-9th of October. The participants were welcomed by

Karmenu Vella Karmenu Vella (born 19 June 1950) is a Maltese politician and former member of the European Commission, in charge of Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries between 2014 and 2019. He has been one of the longest serving Maltese Parliamentar ...

, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and by

Vytenis Andriukaitis Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis (born 9 August 1951) is a member of the European Parliament from 2024 July, a former WHO Special Envoy for the European region, a former European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, a heart surgeon, a co-signa ...

, Commissioner for Health & Food Safety. In 2019, the coordinator of Project Wasteless, Gyula Kasza was invited to represent Hungary in th
EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste
The

Joint Research Centre The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's science and knowledge service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to European Union (EU) policy. Leadersh ...

, in collaboration with the

Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety Within the European Union (EU), Directorates-General are departments with specific zones of responsibility. Within the European Commission specifically, Directorates-General are the equivalent of national-level ministries. Most are headed by a ...

, has set up a multi-disciplinary forum to assess consumer food waste prevention initiatives, called European Consumer Food Waste Forum, in which Gyula Kasza was invited as a core expert, and one year later he was invited to be one of the three members of the Knowledge Committee for the European Citizens' Panel on Food Waste, organised by the

with the intention of gathering citizens' insights on how to step up action to reduce food waste in the EU. From 2020, Project Wasteless received co-funding from the

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

and European projects including

Horizon Europe Horizon Europe is a seven-year European Union scientific research initiative to help develop a sustainable and livable society in Europe. It is the ninth of the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP9), and the succe ...

, Single Market Programme (HaDEA) and Interreg Europe. In 2023 the Hungarian Government issued a regulation on biowaste, in which it identified Project Wasteless as the national food waste prevention programme of Hungary. In 2023, Wasteless Foundation, a non-profit organisation was founded to provide operational support for Project Wasteless. In 2024, Wasteless Foundation become a member of th
European Food Information Council

Main activities

* Awareness raising about food waste prevention: media and social media activities targeting the general population in Hungary, with a special regard to parents with children and young adults starting their own households. * Education programme with a specific bi-lingual educational material, addressing primary and secondary schools. * Conducting educational programs, workshops and trainings for other organizations and companies. * Research programme: annual household food waste measurement (direct measurement in actual households, assisted with scales and food waste diary, based on the FUSIONS methodology), which is reported to the European Commission and published by Eurostat; Quantitative and qualitative consumer research exploring and tracking consumer attitudes and behaviour about food waste prevention. * Collecting and promoting best food waste prevention practices along the food chain and organising pilot programmes for quantification, contributing to the work of the Food is Value Forum. * Cooperation and networking with other food waste related initiatives in Hungary and Europe.

Main achievements

* Project Wasteless measures household food waste in Hungary since 2016, and findings indicate a 12% decrease in the amount of total food waste and a 27% decrease in the amount of avoidable food waste. * The total reach of the awareness raising programme is estimated to exceed 10 times per average citizen in Hungary since 2016. * The total direct (personal) reach of the educational programme is nearly 35,000 children and young adults and almost 1900 teachers.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://maradeknelkul.hu/en Food waste Waste minimisation