Final REFRESH Newsletter
![Alt-text: [Animated Paprika holding a banner saying "REFRESH is over - we are still food waste fighters."]](sites/default/files/final/Paprikabruederfarewell.gif)
Dear food waste fighters,
Over the past years you have followed and supported the REFRESH project – Many thanks for this.
In 2019, the project came to an end and we are now continuing our work on sustainable, waste-free food systems in other contexts. Therefore, this is our final email informing and updating you about the most important activities that have taken place since our last newsletter. Enjoy the reading and let’s continue the good work together!
All the best, Your REFRESH Team
PS: The full overview of project results is available on the REFRESH website: www.eu-refresh.org
REFRESH Results
1. Final REFRESH Videos
Main activities and findings of REFRESH’s work of fighting food waste are presented in four videos. The summarising video “Research against food waste” provides a project overview. The other three videos present what has been done by REFRESH within the focus areas of 1) strategies to changing consumer behaviour, 2) national platforms and the benefits of a voluntary agreement approach for business engagement and 3) the valorisation of unavoidable food waste.
Watch videos:
- Video: Research against food waste
- Video: Reducing consumer food waste
- Video: Valorising unavoidable food waste
- Video: National platforms to fight food waste
2. Final Results Brochure
The REFRESH final results brochure provides a 15 page overview of the work undertaken within the project including key insights and links to the results that are available online.
3. Framework for Action: Building Partnerships, Driving Change - A Voluntary Approach to Cutting Food Waste
A voluntary agreement is a proven method for tackling food waste. Using practical examples from the REFRESH national programmes as well as WRAP’s UK success including Courtauld 2025, this guide, designed as an interactive pdf file, outlines the five key steps necessary for building successful voluntary agreements.
4. REFRESH Policy Briefs
Policy briefs on four topics in the field of valorisation, consumer food waste, unfair trading practices and voluntary agreements have been published within the REFRESH project.
Read more:
- Policy Brief: Avoiding food waste through feeding surplus food to omnivorous non-ruminant livestock
- Policy Brief: Reducing consumer food waste
- Policy Brief: Regulating the role of Unfair Trading Practices in food waste generation
- Policy Brief: Voluntary Agreements as a collaborative solution for food waste reduction
5. Policy Recommendations to Improve Food Waste Prevention and Valorisation in the EU
This report presents a series of policy recommendations based on research conducted within REFRESH to reduce food waste along the whole supply chain, and improve the management of surplus food and food waste flows at the European level.
6. Evaluation Framework for Action Innovation Projects
This report presents a suite of case studies from innovation projects in each of the pilot countries Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and Spain, demonstrating actions to reduce food losses and waste.
7. FoodWasteEXplorer
The FoodWasteEXplorer is a free-of-charge, online, searchable database of food waste compositional data. It allows users to search for nutrients, bioactives, toxicants and other waste related data in specific side streams. Thereby, it enables the use of food industry side streams as new raw materials for a wide range of product options, leading to decreased waste generation, increased value and sustainability.
8. Forklift: Valorisation Spreadsheet Tool
FORKLIFT is a spreadsheet learning tool for life-cycle assessment and life-cycle costing that indicates life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and costs for using selected food side flows.
9. Quiz: Food Waste Valorisation
This quiz lets you find out what new products can be made from by-products of the food industry. The player scrolls two image galleries and chooses two pictures that correspond as food waste and new product. When clicking 'submit' the player is informed whether the assignment was correct. There are eight possible pairs to be found.
REFRESH Events
10. REFRESH Final Conference 2019
The final REFRESH conference took place on May 10, 2019. It was organised in cooperation with the Barcelona Design Centre and took place in the Disseny Hub Barcelona. The conference brought together 150 participants from across Europe, China, Australia and the USA to present and discuss innovative ideas for food waste reduction and valorisation options across the whole supply chain. With a disco chop in the evening, a “doggy bag design contest” and art installations it used innovative formats for networking and the discussion of the final project results. Preceding the conference, on May 9, 2019, participants went to field trips in and around Barcelona to see sustainable food production, food waste prevention and reuse and valorisation of food waste in action. For photos of the event, the conference agenda and speakers’ presentations for download, please visit the website.
11. Doggy Bag Contest
One highlight of the REFRESH final conference was the international doggy bag exhibition and design contest. Participants were encouraged to bring their favorite food take-away bags or boxes. In total, a colourful and diverse collection of 22 contributions from 13 countries was exhibited at the conference. Participants voted for their favorite exemplars and three winners were announced.
12. Integrated Policies for Food Waste and Sustainable Food Systems in the Circular Economy: REFRESH Policy Workshop
This final REFRESH policy workshop on March 22, 2019, which took place in Brussels, discussed EU policy options and recommendations for the integration of policies for food waste into other policy areas. For example, sustainable food systems and circular economy, which go beyond the mere efforts of reducing food waste and include other aspects of sustainability, such as health and social impacts.
13. Policies Against Consumer Food Waste: REFRESH Policy Workshop
The workshop on public campaigns and other policy options for behaviour change on November 19, 2018 in Berlin discussed the findings of REFRESH’s work on consumer behaviour and policy recommendations.
14. Webinars
The REFRESH Community of Experts (CoE) has launched a series of four webinars on ‘Tackling Food Waste Across the Supply Chain’. The series demonstrates how policymakers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, municipalities and many more organisations involved in the food supply chain can effectively address food waste. Recordings of the webinars and presentations are available on the REFRESH Community of Experts.
Watch recordings:
- Webinar: Measuring and managing retail food waste
- Webinar: Tackling consumer food waste
- Webinar: Voluntary Agreements to address food waste
- Webinar: Adding value to food waste and by-products
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About REFRESH
REFRESH was an EU research project taking action against food waste from 2015 -2019. 26 partners from 12 European countries and China worked towards the project's goal to contribute towards Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. Read more ...
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REFRESH Newsletter
Publisher: Ecologic Institute, Pfalzburger Str. 43/44, 10717 Berlin
Editor: Stephanie Wunder, Ecologic Institute, Pfalzburger Str. 43/44, 10717 Berlin
Legal Notice: http://eu-refresh.org/legal-notice
Contact: info@eu-refresh.org
Website: http://eu-refresh.org
