New food waste data for reference year 2022 from manufacturing sector and from retail and distribution sector in Sweden : Deliverable “D1.1 Project report” of the project SWEFOODWASTE

• The purpose of this project was to improve the capacity and quality of food waste reporting in Sweden, specifically for two sectors: Processing and Manufacturing, and Retail and other distribution of food.During the first reporting year (reference year 2020) of the collection of food waste data, several challenges were found within these two sectors. In the Processing and Manufacturing sector, there was a need for improvement due to uncertainties according to the EU food waste definition in terms of what residues ought to be classified as food waste, food loss, by-product or other waste. There were also uncertainties how water content should be reported according to the EU food waste reporting obligation. For the Retail and other distribution of food sector, data from only few actors were available for wholesalers, convenience stores, and e-stores which affected data quality.Processing and ManufacturingTo improve reporting and data quality from the food processing and manufacturing sector, a survey was produced asking about food waste and other residues that may constitute food losses. This was to get self-reported data from a large random sample of respondents and to better understand food loss and waste flows in this sector.The survey of Processing and Manufacturing revealed a large volume of previously unknown food waste. 305 000 tonnes of food waste were reported for reference year 2022 compared to 53 000 tonnes for 2020. This is attributed to a better representation of the reality rather than an actual increase in food waste generation.Amounts of food losses seem to be even larger. However, these amounts are also very uncertain due to few respondents from most sectors. Apart from food waste, the dairy and ice cream sector accounted for 180 500 tonnes of food loss, which mainly is whey that goes to feed. Food loss from other sectors cannot be published due to high uncertainties and risk or revealing respondents.The new results on food waste generation, corresponding to 29 kg food waste per capita 2022, align better with international figures. In a European context, the Swedish food waste generation in the industry was low, with 5 kg per capita in 2020 compared to the EU27 average of 27 kg per capita.The new method of self-reporting by respondents improves the accuracy of results, as they know their own operations best. However, there was a challenge in aligning the new EU common definition of food waste with the common understanding of food waste in the Swedish food sector.The different types of food waste to include in the food waste definition were broadened to better align with the intent of EU legislation. The EU definition was for this study interpreted to include most parts of animals and plants that have entered processing as food and become waste. This is a change from former interpretation and the main reason for accounting larger amounts of food waste than previous years. The survey was also designed to enable the distribution of the resulting quantities between different subsectors of manufacturing and processing, as they are grouped by “NACE-codes” in the Business register. Retail and other distribution of foodMost national and regional wholesalers, convenience store chains and e-stores were contacted but unfortunately only a few were able or willing to provide data. This study revealed 13 800 tonnes of food waste from these businesses 2022. This is less compared to 18 200 tonnes in 2021. Note that both these numbers exclude retail and that no scaling occurred for wholesale or e-stores. Although several smaller companies started sharing data, a few large wholesalers did not submit data for 2022 as in 2021 which is the reason for the decrease of reported amounts.Data collection in the wholesale sector yielded limited insights due to only a few companies providing data, and mostly aggregated data. This seems to be due to low technical maturity of their internal data collection and sharing. However, these companies collectively constitute a substantial portion of the wholesale sector in Sweden. It is challenging to precisely quantify their contribution, since many food industry and retail entities also engage in wholesale activities without being formally registered as wholesalers.Convenience stores provided data that could be upscaled to the national level together with data from retail, showing that these do not add up much food waste compared to retail stores. For specialized e-stores selling food, their contribution to food waste is estimated to be minimal, as their operational models and product types result in low waste generation compared to other retail sectors. A large portion of e-stores selling food are part of the retail sector and already included in reported food waste amounts from retail. 

• Denna rapport presenterar ny statistik över livsmedelsavfall i svensk livsmedelsindustri samt delar av livsmedelsdistributionen. Årligen ska en nationell undersökningen av uppkommet livsmedelsavfall genomföras, i enlighet Kommissionens genomförandebeslut (EU) 2019/2000. Under det första rapporteringsåret (referensår 2020) hittades flera utmaningar inom två sektorer. I sektorn för bearbetning och tillverkning (industrin) fanns det ett behov av förbättringar på grund av osäkerheter enligt EU:s definition av livsmedelsavfall när det gäller vilka restprodukter som ska klassificeras som livsmedelsavfall, livsmedelsförlust, biprodukt eller annat avfall. Det fanns också osäkerheter kring hur vatteninnehållet ska rapporteras enligt EU:s rapporteringskrav. För sektorn detaljhandel och annan distribution av livsmedel fanns data från endast ett fåtal aktörer i segmenten grossister, servicebutiker och e-butiker, vilket påverkade datakvaliteten.Bearbetning och tillverkningFör att förbättra rapporteringen och datakvaliteten från sektorn togs en enkät fram med frågor om livsmedelsavfall och andra restprodukter som kunde utgöra livsmedelsförluster. Syftet var att få självrapporterade uppgifter från ett stort och slumpmässigt urval av respondenter. Granskningen av rådata skulle även ge en bättre förståelse för livsmedelsförluster och avfallsflöden inom denna sektor. Undersökningen av bearbetning och tillverkning avslöjade en stor mängd tidigare okänt livsmedelsavfall. 305 000 ton livsmedelsavfall rapporterades för referensåret 2022 jämfört med 53 000 ton för 2020. Detta tillskrivs en bättre representation av verkligheten enligt EU:s gemensamma definition av livsmedelsavfall snarare än en faktisk ökning av matavfallsproduktionen.Detaljhandel och annan distribution av livsmedel De flesta nationella och regionala grossister, servicebutikskedjor och e-butiker kontaktades, men tyvärr var det bara ett fåtal som kunde eller ville tillhandahålla data. Denna studie visade att 13 800 ton livsmedelsavfall uppkom i dessa verksamheter 2022. Detta är mindre än 18 200 ton 2021. Observera att båda dessa siffror exkluderar detaljhandeln och att ingen uppskalning gjordes för grossist- eller e-butiker, utan det är rapporterade data som redovisas. Även om flera mindre företag började dela data, lämnade några stora grossister inte in data för 2022, som gjorde det 2021. Det är anledningen till minskningen av de rapporterade mängderna. Projektet gav begränsade insikter på grund av att endast ett fåtal företag tillhandahöll data, men dessa företag utgör tillsammans en betydande del av grossistsektorn i Sverige.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Food waste

food loss

food industry

manufacturing

distribution

e-store

wholesale

convenience store

Waste

Avfall

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)