ISO launches proposal for new committee on food waste

Denmark has submitted a proposal to ISO for a new committee to work on reducing food waste. The goal is to provide organizations with a tool to demonstrate the reduction of food waste in an unambiguous and systematic way. The ISO documents will be suitable as a basis for certification. NEN is asking Dutch stakeholders for a substantiated response to the ISO proposal before April 15.

There is a lot of interest in reducing food waste. Organizations often claim that their policy in the field of prevention of food loss and food waste is in order, but substantiation or proof is often lacking. Also, it is not always clear when there is waste or what exactly can or cannot be called food waste.

New commission

In order to provide solutions to the above issues, Denmark has submitted a proposal to ISO for a new committee that will work on combating food waste. The committee's work is aimed at any organization that wants to reduce food waste in a systematic way and thus contribute to more sustainable production, but also save costs.

Framework

The work of the ISO committee is intended to provide organizations with a common framework through which the reduction of food waste can be demonstrated in a systematic manner. It will look explicitly at systems and documents that have already been developed in this area.

Plan of approach

First, a management system standard will be developed with terms, definitions and general requirements. Next, a guide will be created with best practices, tailored to different levels of strategic goals and suitable for organizations of different sizes. And there will be a document with methods for measuring food waste in a uniform way, so that improvement can be established on the basis of a common framework. The work of the ISO committee is intended to be a basis for certification and applicable to all organizations active in the food chain.

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