One of the most serious environmental concerns for our planet is the unsustainable production and consumption of food. Eliminating food loss and waste to the greatest extent possible – at all stages of the food supply chain, from producer to consumer – is emerging as a critical and necessary step towards more sustainable food systems.

The overall aim of this project is to raise awareness among stakeholders in the food service sector, to identify the necessary skills that businesses and workers in the sector need to develop and to provide them with guidance on how they can contribute to reducing food waste. At the same time, create a robust training programme, so that future workers in the sector are aware of the need to reduce food waste and work towards the sustainability of the food system, while in parallel raising awareness among consumers and customers in the foodservice sector.

Specific Objectives:

- Develop and disseminate guidance and training materials for foodservice businesses, promoting food waste prevention and reduction in all processes (ordering, storing, preparing, serving and waste managing of food products).
- Showcase successful examples where such measures led to a fast return on investment/short-term economic benefits, as this can be a strong incentive for businesses with reduced profit margins to take immediate action.
- Use public-private and inter-sectorial cooperation to foster the development of technological solutions that can better connect offer and needs and help decentralise the collection of surplus food.
- Influence consumer attitude to reduce and prevent food waste.

The concrete project results are:

- The FoodConscious self-assessment tool, a user-friendly interactive online tool consisting of short questions on specific areas of attention based on the competency standards resulting from the training needs analysis.
- The FoodConscious Learning Resource, an online environment containing all the FoodConscious training portfolio material produced in digitized format.
- The FoodConscious Trainers’ Guidebook, an online guide for teachers and trainers to help them effectively integrate the FoodConscious training portfolio into existing learning programmes, perform the FoodConscious online course as a blended learning course or assist foodservice sector professionals undertaking the FoodConscious learning programme through the e-learning platform in their self-learning journey.