Monitoring Report Reveals a 24% Reduction of Food Waste after the Dialogue Forum Voluntary Agreement

One year after a voluntary agreement signed as part of the Dialogue Forum for the Reduction of Food Waste in the Retail and Wholesale sector in Germany, a monitoring report shows that there is a 24% waste reduction in 2023. Moreover, the 14 signatories of the German Pact against Food Waste have implemented a total 132 measures not only in their own businesses, but also at the interfaces to their suppliers, costumers and in food donation.

According to the monitoring report conducted by the Thünen-Institut, the participating companies from the retail and wholesale sector are well on track with the obligations stemming from the voluntary agreement signed in summer 2023.

As part of the agreement, the companies committed to reduce their own food waste by 50% by 2030 and 30% by 2025, respectively, fulfil 5 related compulsory measures, and respect the “food use hierarchy” and internal training measures.

In addition, they signed up to support food waste reduction at the interfaces with their suppliers, customers, and redistribution organisations with elective measures to be chosen annually from a catalogue of actions.

The Dialogue Forum for Wholesale and Retail to Reduce Food Waste in Germany was coordinated and moderated by the CSCP between 2019-2022. The aim of the Dialogue Forum was the reduction of food waste in the German retail and wholesale sector, in direct support to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.

For further questions and to engage with us on the reduction of food waste and loss, please contact Nora Brüggemann.