Large EU grant for food waste reduction research

The Operations Research and Logistics group and the Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy group at Wageningen University received close to €1 million for their part in a large European consortium that has recently been awarded a €12 million grant for a project on food waste reduction. This project, entitled “Systemic innovations towards a zero food waste supply chain” (acronym “ZeroW”), aims to provide a significant impact on food waste reduction and the sustainability of food supply chains through the demonstration of nine different food supply chain innovations. By employing a systemic innovation approach, the goal is to effectively address the multidimensional issue of food waste.

The two WUR research groups will be active in the economic evaluation of food waste in the supply chain and the evaluation of the effect of supply chain interventions to reduce food waste. The groups will also be involved in two of the living labs that are focused on specific supply chain interventions. One of these two living labs is focused on improving food waste repurposing in food bank supply chains and the other on optimizing diets from the perspective of food waste reduction. The groups will closely cooperate with the Zero Hunger Lab at Tilburg University.