European Court of Auditors : Upcoming audit report on Food Waste

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish its special report 'Combating Food Waste: an opportunity for the EU to improve the resource-efficiency of the food supply chain' on Tuesday 17 January 2017 at 00h01 in 23 EU languages.

The report will identify unexploited potential in a number of EU policies to combat food waste and continuing problems in dealing with the problem, including fragmented actions and a lack of coordination by the European Commission.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Food waste is a global problem which requires action at all levels. Current estimates indicate that, globally, around one third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted or lost. This represents a huge economic and environmental cost: the annual related economic and environmental costs of food waste worldwide are estimated by the United Nations to be some $1.7 trillion.

The auditors examined how current policies for combating food waste could be used more effectively. In particular, they looked at EU action taken so far to reduce food waste and how the various policy instruments work.

The ECA's special reports set out the results of its performance and compliance audits of specific budgetary areas or management topics. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.