The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week announced six priority action areas designed to reduce food loss and waste. The interagency collaboration, dubbed “Winning on Reducing Food Waste,” stems from a formal agreement announced by the three federal agencies last October.
The six priority areas are:
- Enhance interagency coordination;
- Increase consumer education and outreach efforts;
- Improve coordination and guidance on food loss and waste measurement;
- Clarify and communicate information on food safety, food date labels and food donations;
- Collaborate with private industry to reduce food loss and waste across the supply chain; and
- Encourage food waste reduction by federal agencies in their respective facilities.
“IDFA has been engaged in legislative and regulatory efforts to reduce food waste over the years, and we look forward to opportunities to participate in this collaborative effort,” said Danielle Quist, IDFA’s senior director of regulatory affairs and counsel.
‘Winning on Reducing Food Waste’
The EPA estimates that food accounts for the largest share of municipal solid waste. Americans throw away more than 75 billion pounds of food annually and one third of food available is not eaten, according to EPA.
This effort builds on the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions Initiative set by USDA and EPA in September 2015. That initiative launched the first food-loss and waste-reduction goal for the United States and included a number of businesses and organizations. Together, they committed to reducing food waste in the United States by 50 percent by the year 2030.
IDFA
“Helping to reduce food waste continues to be a priority for IDFA,” said Quist. “Most recently, IDFA successfully advocated for $1.5 million for USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to research solutions for ice cream co-product. Our plans to work with ARS during the research phase aligns closely with the new federal strategy, which calls for collaborating with private industry to reduce food loss and waste across the supply chain.”
With the research expected to begin soon, ARS experts aim to identify innovative, industry-wide solutions and develop sustainable uses for ice cream co-product. The results could have applications for reducing co-product waste in the processing of additional dairy products, Quist said.
Over the next year, the three federal agencies will collaborate on the six priority areas. In addition to enhancing interagency coordination, the priority areas include consumer education and outreach, coordination and guidance on food loss and waste measurement, private industry collaboration, food waste reduction at federal agencies and facilities, and clarification on food safety guidelines, date labeling and food donations.
IDFA’s Food Waste Task Force will continue to find opportunities for collaboration under the new strategy and to determine next steps.
Members with questions may contact Quist at dquist@idfa.org.