Innovative practices to tackle food loss and waste
On 18 June 2024, the FOLOU and WASTELESS projects organised a webinar in which several projects presented their results and experiences in reducing food loss and waste. Together with Espigoladors, CHORIZO, SISTERS, CULTIVATE and FoodLoops, LOWINFOOD coordinator Clara Cicatiello focused on the implementation of the project’s social innovations: the dialogue with stakeholders in the fish and bakery value chains, and the educational approach against food waste in schools.
“Innovations can be standardised, but the results will be different, as it depends on the people involved,” said Cicatiello, adding that “it is important to adapt the innovation to each context”.
The expert in food waste prevention believes that in social innovations (compared with technological or organisational innovations), and especially in schools, there is more potential to work on reducing food waste, as the margin for reduction is bigger in the latter. According to Cicatiello, it is necessary to introduce the issue into school curricula. Asked about the resistance encountered, she replied that in the fish sector, it has been difficult to involve the stakeholders, and institutions’ commitment is necessary. On the other hand, small companies have found a lot of interest as they need to make their businesses sustainable. This is the case of small bakeries in Italy, which in comparison to large companies in Sweden or Finland, it has been possible to work more with them.
