REFRESH Final Conference 2019 Will Continue the Spirit of Food Waste Reduction The REFRESH final conference 2019 presented that the processes initiated during the 4-year project will continue after the project ends. 150 participants from all across Europe, China, Australia and the United States came together on 10 May 2019 in the Disseny Hub Barcelona for the final REFRESH conference. Organised in association with the Barcelona Design Centre, innovative ideas for food waste reduction and valorisation options across the whole supply chain were presented and discussed at the conference. Patrik Eisenhauer and Nora Brüggemann, of the CSCP, together with David Rogers of WRAP and representatives of the REFRESH national platforms from Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Spain and China shared their achievements in building Voluntary Agreements across the food supply chain. This resulted in the “REFRESH voluntary agreements blueprint” and the establishment of National Frameworks for Action in reducing food waste. This collaborative approach from the REFRESH national platforms revealed the importance of bringing together stakeholders to work towards a common goal and offer a flexible approach to tackling food waste. The biggest value add was hearing that the initiated processes from the REFRESH project will continue in their respective countries, even after the project ends. The findings from the REFRESH project stressed on the importance of setting new social norms to change the consumer’s mindset regarding food waste and that social norm campaigns are likely to be more effective than simple information and awareness-raising campaigns. Another finding from the project was that the consumer food waste can be reduced through changing household food management practices, business practices and policy interventions. The project also presented the FoodWasteEXplorer an online database providing information on food waste compositional data, and the valorisation spreadsheet tool FORKLIFT . Participants of the conference also had the chance to engage in other fun activities, such as the “REFRESH Disco Chop”, where they chopped and reused veggies to music. The Doggy bag exhibition and design contest engaged the participants to present their own creative doggy bag design, or share something from their organisations or the countries’ government. Please contact Nora Brüggemann for any further questions. Photo by: Sebastian Szulfer