Food waste is an important topic in the city of Leuven. One of the strategic goals of the local food strategy ‘Food connects (Voeding verbindt)’ is by default also the prevention and reuse of food surplus.

But… Where do you start?

FoodWIN developed the Food waste journey: a three-step trajectory to fight food waste in a city: 1. Diagnosis – 2. Strategy – 3. Action.

The ideal starting point is the diagnosis: an estimation of the amount of food waste and the impact thereof. FoodWIN developed this estimation through the Food Waste Calculator: a tool based on Flemish and European studies on food waste.

FoodWIN calculated these numbers with the parameters given by the city of Leuven. Think of the number of citizens, the number of restaurants, supermarkets, hospital beds, and so on.

The result? 

Leuven now has a baseline for targeted action to reduce food waste in the most urgent sectors of their territory. They know the impact of food waste on their greenhouse gas emissions and the potential financial gains of reducing it, and what proportion of food waste is avoidable.