Food Loss and Waste in the EU Law between Sustainability of Well-being and the Implications on Food System and on Environment

Abstract

Food waste in the global food supply chain is reviewed in relation to the prospects for feeding a population of nine billion by 2050. The topic of this article is the “food waste”, an important issue which has been developed increasingly over the past few years in the context of the actions identified at international level to contrast the global food crisis, which in its various aspects involves not only food law – in terms of both food security and food safety – but environmental law as well. In this light, the analysis can be seen as included among the issues related to the sustainability of well-being with the aim of ascertaining the causes that underlie food losses and food waste, also in view of the legal obstacles, and of identifying the latest prospects indicated by national and European lawmakers to mitigate or limit such waste. In the context of the analysis on the sustainability of well-being, the issue of food waste represents also under a legal point of view a complex aspect, the result of modern society and the well-being that characterises it, which involves multiple interests and is part of food security. The issue evokes the fact that food insecurity continues to exist and indeed has worsened in many parts of the world and raises questions on the impact of food waste on global food security. Thus, the issue is linked to several quite significant aspects related to environmental and food issues such as the control of natural resources, the loss of biodiversity, climate change, soil erosion, the reduction of scarce resources such as agricultural soil and water, and the loss of natural habitats.