Project description
Addressing food waste and marketing standards
Understanding the impacts of food marketing standards is a formidable challenge, since they cover a wide range of sectors and are regulated at different levels. There is also variation in terms of potential side-effects. The relationship between these standards and the pervasive issue of food waste remains obscured by limited and contradictory evidence. Compounding the complexity, these standards, designed to meet broader objectives, require a delicate balancing act in terms of prevention. Simultaneously, food waste, once deemed a liability, is now recognised as a potential source of business value, with the unexplored territory of suboptimal yet safe-to-eat foods. Addressing this quandary, the EU-funded BREADCRUMB project emerges, aiming to unravel the intricacies, assess trade-offs, and propose solutions for a more sustainable future.
Objective
Understanding the impacts of food marketing standards is quite complex as, they cover various sectors, are regulated at different levels, and have potential side-effects. Their interaction with Food Waste (FW) remains unclear, with the existing evidence being limited and contradictory. Furthermore, as marketing standards are introduced to meet wider objectives, trade-offs between such objectives and FW prevention, need to be assessed. This assessment should guide a re-balancing of marketing standards, to effectively meet contradicting goals.
At the same time, FW, once accounted as a liability, is increasingly considered a potential source of business value, with suboptimal – but still safe to eat – foods, being a case still unexplored. What is needed therefore, is a dual approach, that first prevents FW generation by ‘re-balancing’ food marketing standards, and then improves market access to suboptimal foods to prevent them from becoming FW.
Drawing from all above, BREADCRUMB will (1) create an inventory of private and interrelated public food marketing standards, and will provide an understanding of their purpose and nature, (2) will create an empirical evidence base to generate estimates of FW related to marketing standards in five food commodities (fruit & vegetables, meat, eggs, cereals, fish), (3) will model the underlying mechanisms through which, marketing standards lead to FW generation, and the trade-offs between the objective of preventing FW reduction and other objectives pursued by marketing standards, and will use the results to propose a re-balancing of existing standards, (4) will improve market access to suboptimal foods by guiding food businesses to select appropriate marketing channels and to quantify their business value, and by fostering change in consumers’ acceptance of suboptimal foods, and (5) will structure the previous results into operational and policy guidance on how to prevent/reduce FW related to marketing standards.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
9820 Merelbeke
Belgium
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Participants (21)
2000 Antwerpen
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
40126 Bologna
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1165 Kobenhavn
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9000 Murska Sobota
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08860 Castelldefels
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
46980 Paterna Valencia
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
42107 Wuppertal
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4470-177 Maia
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Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
4464-503 Senhora Da Hora
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1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
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9242 KRIZEVCI PRI LJUTOMERU
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9000 Murska Sobota
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
46010 Valencia
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08011 BARCELONA
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48012 BAGNACAVALLO - RAVENNA
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1609 KOBENHAVN
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40670 MEERBUSCH
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9000 MURSKA SOBOTA
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1000 Bruxelles / Brussel
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1702 GROOT-BIJGAARDEN
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
08012 BARCELONA
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