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Foodservice cut from food waste laws?

The foodservice sector appears to have been removed from new European laws relating to the prevention of food waste.

Italian MEP Simona Bonafè, rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, has published proposed revisions to the European Commission’s new Circular Economy package.

The changes, which MEPs will vote on, include increases to some of the household waste and packaging recycling targets and the separate collection of bio-waste, including food waste, by 2020.

The European Commission had also proposed that countries adopt measures to reduce food waste by half by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development goals. “These measures should aim to prevent food waste in primary production, in processing and manufacturing, in retail and other distribution of food, in restaurants and food services as well as in households,” reads the original document.

Bonafè’s amendment reads: “These measures should aim to prevent food waste at retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.”

The Parliament won’t agree on the text until later this year, so there are likely to be further changes. Indeed, some want to see the re-introduction of the mandatory food waste target, which the European Commission binned when it published its plans in December 2015.