Denmark to spearhead global battle against food waste

Denmark has just managed to negotiate an agreement for the development of international standards to reduce food waste. Moreover, Danish Standards has secured a seat at the top table, ensuring a high level of ambition and a competitive edge for Danish enterprises in taking part in the setting of the future market requirements.

On a global scale, 1.6 billion tons of food is wasted every year, posing major problems for the climate and the environment. Denmark supports the global food waste challenge by helping to find solutions. ISO Standard has the potential to become the essential piece that can enable international communities to fight food waste together.

A decisive role for global solutions

The international standards will be developed in ISO, which has 164 member states from all over the world. Denmark will play a decisive role in shaping the direction of future requirements and guidelines. For this reason, Danish Standards has been awarded the secretariat and the right to appoint a chairman, and thus the management of the standardisation work.

By preparing standards on a global basis can strengthen the resulting guidelines that cut across countries and supply chains. Denmark’s position within the food industry holds a major responsibility to take the lead where common global solutions are needed with a food production that is today more international than ever.

Measurements of food waste creates advantages for future solutions

To reduce food waste, concrete tools and measurement methods are needed for businesses and organisations to help them reduce, record and document their efforts. Denmark suggests that a food safety management standard and a standard for measurement methods and definitions should be developed to offer enterprises tools for how to reduce their food waste in every step along the production chain. The standards are to ensure a common understanding of what food waste is and how it is measured, making it easier to compare and set goals across organizations and countries.

With Denmark spearheading the work, this will make it possible not only to ensure a high level of ambition but also to give some competitive advantage to the Danish food industry.

Source: Danish Standards