Written by: José Miguel Sánchez Zaballa

Preamble

Building upon personal experience, while working in #WASTELESS, a European-funded project aiming to reduce and prevent food loss and waste across the Agri-food sector. And on the side, executing an MSc. thesis project titled “Barrio Sin Despilfarro” about the development of knowledge-sharing spaces in the city of Barcelona to discuss food waste. This article aims to share the main findings of one of the thesis’s chapters and reflect upon their use in the project’s communication strategy.

The thesis findings

After carrying out interviews with the organizers and participants of the most relevant awareness campaign in the Catalan territory “Aprofitem els aliments”, they all pointed out how correctly using messages that appeal to community responsibility and providing end users with simple tips and tools can increase the impact of the campaign as each type of message contributes differently, one promotes citizen mobilization and the other one provides consumers with tools to start preventing food waste in their daily lives.

 #WASTELESS communication and dissemination strategy.

The WASTELESS project has aimed to provide the agrifood system with tools that ease the quantification of food loss and waste. During its 4 years of funding, it has followed a Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication (DEC) plan, which puts effort into raising awareness about the issue through its social media, particularly LinkedIn and X, but also through other channels, like café talks with experts.

Connecting the dots between awareness campaigns and social media.

At a glance, both strategies, share synergies due to their ability to build capacity across consumers and the agrifood sector. In fact, they put the issue in the spotlight, make it relevant to their respective target audience, and constantly invite the audience to engage with sustainability and be mindful about their attitude towards food waste, and ultimately start adopting new habits. Nonetheless, a clear difference arises as WASTELESS also promotes knowledge exchange. Due to its dissemination scope, the project directly targets experts and actively gathers their input and perspectives on accelerating progress towards this sustainability goal. Communication is therefore not only outward facing but also interactive. Perhaps awareness campaigns could benefit from integrating this knowledge-exchange component more deliberately. Fostering discussion across the supply chain not only strengthens collective action but also builds community and adds value to the work and research of experts involved in tackling food waste.

Background

Taking place every four years, the International Food Data Conference presents itself as the most important appointment in the world of Food Composition Data. On its 14th edition, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) hosted the event at its headquarters in Rome, Italy. The event received the participation of the International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS), a network of which EuroFIR and its members are a part.

The event as seen by EuroFIR

During the three-day event, EuroFIR team and its members, participated by chairing X sessions, presenting X oral presentations and showcasing X posters on research and different European-funded projects, as well as receiving a distinctive award and networking with fellow participants.

Recognizing a career-long effort

On September 1st, EuroFIR´s Director, Paul Finglas was awarded the INFOODS Nevin Scrimshaw Award, a recognition given to professionals who, in their years of experience, have performed an outstanding job in the research of food composition, particularly in low and middle-income countries. For EuroFIR is a pleasure to join its founder in the celebration of his well-paved career, which not only includes more than a hundred scientific articles, but also efforts to make food composition data available and trustworthy in Europe and in the Global South.

Amongst other good news, after receiving his award, Paul Finglas presented the idea of building an open-access food database overseen by EFSA. Which could make food data literacy more accessible, understandable and transparent, ultimately benefiting bigger projects like policies, nutritional strategies and further research.

Later that day, our director, Dr. Hettie Schönfeldt also had the chance to chair the session on Biodiversity and food composition, and kept participating in the event during the second session with her presentation “Determining the nutrient composition of foods commonly consumed by Indians in South Africa”, where she proposed innovative alternatives to food consumption surveys, some even including social media posts, to better track and quantify food composition data when is not available.

A Verifish solution to empower consumers.

The Verifish project was represented by Dr. Siân Astley, Secretary General of EuroFIR who showcased the poster titled “Sustainability Indicators Framework for Communicating Responsible Aquafood Consumption.” The poster presented how Verifish has developed a supply chain solution for tracking environmental impact, supply management, and nutritional value metrics. To later process these data through an intuitive software tool designed to support informed decisions, healthy diets, and promote sustainability across the fisheries sector.

Promoting TrustEUFish around the globe

Dr. Marion Buso, EuroFIR researcher, representing the TrustEUFish project participated in the presentation of her poster “Challenges in providing comprehensive fish and seafood composition data”, which showcased a clear example of the relevance of Food Composition Data Bases, just like EuroFIR´s FoodEXplorer, the use and correct maintenance of such tools strengths the fisheries supply chain, as they reinforce consumers decisions and pave the way for future research opportunities.

A special thanks to our members.

The conference wouldn´t have been a success without the participation of EuroFIR´s members, not only because they enriched the conversation and engaged in interesting discussions, but also because they were also amongst the presenters. Please find a brief description of each of our colleagues´ interventions:

Heli Reinivuo – Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland.

Who presented the talk: “The new era of technical solutions of food composition data management, dietary data collection and dietary intake calculation in national dietary surveys: an example from Finland” and gave a hint on how food composition management software can be applied for nutritional monitoring at a national level.

Jelena Milešević – University of Belgrade, Serbia

Participated with her oral presentation titled: “Challenges and achievements in capacity development and harmonization of food consumption data collection in EFSA EU Menu national dietary surveys in Balkan region for dietary monitoring, sustainable healthy diets and food systems transformation”, reporting on EFSA-sponsored nutrition surveys across the Balkans, highlighting regional strengths and challenges in obtaining harmonized data to support public policy.

Maria Graça Dias – National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Portugal.

Explained in her presentation “Approach and resources for the sustainable update of the Portuguese Food Composition Database: a multi-source and collaborative strategy”. How can a national authority update its FCD through collaborative networks, stakeholder participation, together with analytical and digital tools.

Viktor Crabeels & Mirjana Andjelkovic – Sciensano, Belgium.

Our colleagues from Sciensano, presented in tandem their work titled “Decoding food labels: a scalable framework for ingredient identification and classification”, in which they explained how is it possible to harmonize food label information when this presents multilingual or different formatted packaging.

Marian Kjellvold – Institute of Marine Research, Norway

Presented “Bridging the Data Gap: Expert Guidelines for Reporting Analytical Data on Aquatic Foods for Use in Food Composition Databases” and shared a set of guidelines to help researchers include relevant information when reporting on aquatic food products composition. With the purpose of improving the quality and usability of the aforementioned data.

Helena Pastell – Finnish Food Authority – Finland

Explained to the public her study “The chemistry of edible insects – the impact of chitin on nutritional analysis.” where she highlighted the barriers edible insects have due to being novel foods in the market. Furthermore, she explained how the protein skeleton of insects can help better determine their nutritional value.

Silvia Lisciani – Council for Agricultural Research and Economics – Italy

During her talk “Assessing biodiversity food richness through dietary surveys: a cost-benefit approach to guide the collection of consumption and composition data at below species level in an Italian case study” , Silvia Lisciani explained the need to further include plant biodiversity consumption in consumers diets given the persistent gaps in food consumption surveys when reviewing biodiverse foods.

Antonis Vlassopoulos – Agricultural University of Athens, Greece.

Who presented not one, but two oral presentations, the first on behalf of EuroFIR´s former intern Stefania Xanthopoulou, titled “Developing the Greek branded food composition database (HelTH): update and expansion methodology”, which consisted of explaining Branded Food Composition Databases (BFCDs), and how it is possible to update and curate their information through automatic programs. Keeping databases compliant with quality standards and updated to the changing food market.

And the second, “Development of nutritional composition data for commonly consumed foods (generic foods) via statistical analysis and thematic reconfiguration of branded food composition data”, explained how artificial intelligence trained with BFCDs can bridge food composition data in areas where information is scarce, and thus provide estimated nutritional values for staple food products.

As we finish with this memoir, once again we thank every participant of the 14th International Food Data Conference, together with the hosting organisation, FAO, for making this great event the common house of food composition data and food literacy.

El acuerdo:

¡EuroFIR y el Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Dietistas-Nutricionistas (CGCODN) se unen para fortalecer la profesión! Como parte de esta colaboración, los miembros del CGCODN disfrutan de un descuento exclusivo en la membresía anual de EuroFIR del 30%.

Beneficios de la membresía:

• Usa FoodEXplorer para buscar 40 bases de datos alimentarias nacionales, incluyendo BEDCA.
• Encuentra rápidamente valores nutricionales precisos para elaborar planes de
  alimentación, evaluar dietas y asesorar a clientes.
• Con eBasis descubre compuestos bioactivos presentes en los alimentos, una herramienta ideal para recomendar alimentos funcionales, antioxidantes y dietas ricas en polifenoles.
• Utiliza ePlantLIBRA para evaluar suplementos herbales y compuestos de origen vegetal respaldados por evidencia científica.
• Únete a un grupo exclusivo de dietistas internacionales, donde podrás intercambiar conocimientos con expertos y conocer nuevas prácticas basadas en la evidencia.
• Accede a talleres especializados, sesiones de formación y las últimas novedades del sector para mantenerte siempre actualizado en ciencias de la nutrición.
• Impulsa tu carrera profesional, gana credibilidad y amplía tu experiencia con las bases de datos de composición de alimentos más avanzadas.

¿Cómo inscribirse?	Detalles de la oferta
1. Contacta con CGCODN para recibir tu código de descuento. 2. Rellena el formulario de solicitud en línea, usando el código. 3. Espera a que EuroFIR procese tu solicitud y… ¡Listo! Ya eres miembro de EuroFIR.	Únete hoy y ahorra un 30% en tu primer año de membresía. Pagas 83,30€ en lugar de 119,00€ ¡No dejes pasar esta oportunidad!

Para más detalles, contáctanos en [email protected] o visita www.eurofir.org

On Tuesday 14th October, the EuroFIR team attended the hybrid conference All Hands on Biotech: Rethinking Agri-Food Sustainable Competitiveness, hosted by the European Food Forum at the European Parliament in Brussels (BE).
The event brought together policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and civil society representatives to discuss how biotechnology can support the green transition, strengthen food security, and reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels.

From Farmers to Consumers: How Biotechnology Can Address Food System Challenges.
The first session was opened by MEP Morten Løkkegaard (Denmark, Renew Europe), who outlined the current state of the European biotech industry and highlighted its crucial role in driving decarbonisation and innovation across the agri-food chain. Industry representatives followed with insights into cutting-edge applications of biotechnology.
Tijn van Vugt (Belgium, Food Fermentation Europe) emphasised the importance of bridging research and industry to scale emerging technologies such as precision fermentation—a rapidly advancing area with potential to boost food security and sustainability. This approach is also central to FlavourFerm, in which EuroFIR is a partner, which aims to enhance flavour, quality, and sustainability in plant-based and fermented foods. Continuing on this theme, Anne Klock (Netherlands, DSM-Firmenich) showcased cheese production as a practical example of biotechnology in action. She demonstrated how process optimisation and product innovation can increase competitiveness and funding opportunities through collaboration and scientific excellence.

Biotech Act: Which Policy Enablers Does Europe Need to Reap the Full Potential of Agri-Food Biotech?
The second panel focused on the policy landscape shaping biotechnology in Europe. Representatives from the European Commission and the Council of the EU Presidency discussed current frameworks and ongoing reforms aimed at simplifying administrative procedures and improving access to funding, particularly for SMEs. Søren Boserup Lauritsen (Denmark, EU Council Presidency) and Sergio Strozzi (Italy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) both underscored the need to reduce bureaucracy, enhance financing for start-ups, and foster partnerships linking investors, innovators, and policymakers.
Claire Skentelbery (Belgium, EuropaBio) highlighted the importance of maintaining Europe’s high safety standards while harmonising regulations to attract greater investment—especially for smaller companies. From the consumer perspective, Ens Brookman (Belgium, Euroconsumers) stressed how engaged consumers can drive market transformation by supporting brands that involve them in product development and commit to transparency and trust.
In closing, the Danish EU Council Presidency called for a systems-thinking approach to shape Europe’s biotech future—one that brings all stakeholders together to co-create smarter, greener, and more competitive agri-food policies. The conference reinforced a clear message: collaboration across sectors is essential to unlock the full potential of biotechnology for a sustainable and resilient food system.

On September 30th, EuroFIR took part in the hybrid event “From Excess to Impact: Reducing Food Waste and Feeding Communities,” held at the European Parliament to mark the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. Organized jointly by European Food Forum and The European Food Banks Federation (FEBA, by its French acronym) the event brought together policymakers, industry leaders, and civil society to discuss one key question:

How can Europe keep reducing food waste while ensuring no one goes hungry?

To open the debate Olivér Várhelyi (HU) EU Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, called on everyone to take responsibility by cutting food waste and educating younger generations about sustainability and responsible consumption.

What Europe’s leaders had to say.

Several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) shared their perspectives throughout the session. Anna Zalewska (PL, ECR), Rapporteur on the Waste Framework Directive, outlined the EU’s upcoming targets: by 2030, food manufacturers should reduce waste by 10%, and the hospitality and household sectors by 30%.

To reach these goals, collaboration will be key. Thus, MEP Mario Furore (IT, GUE/NGL) emphasized food redistribution as a practical way to fight both waste and food insecurity. Building upon this idea, Ana Miranda Paz (ES, Greens/EFA) framed food waste reduction as a moral obligation, tying it to the concept of food sovereignty, empowering citizens and ensuring fair access to food through sustainable practices.

Representing the European Commission, Klaus Berend (BE, DG SANTE) and Ruth Paserman (BE, DG EMPL) shared the roadmap for implementing the new Food and Textile Waste Directive. They explained how the law can impact food banks in each EU member state and stressed the importance of consulting national federations to ensure fair and effective implementation.

Food banks: leading by example.

MEPs Stefan Köhler (DE, EPP) and Pietro Fiocchi (IT, ECR), on behalf of the European Food Forum, thanked FEBA for co-organizing the event and highlighted the essential work of food banks in tackling waste. Bernard Valluis (FR, FEBA), FEBA President, presented the network’s main efforts, redistributing surplus

food to people at risk of food insecurity and raising public awareness around responsible consumption.

Adding a global perspective, Emily Broad Leib (US, Harvard University) presented The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas an innovative tool that maps and compares food donation policies worldwide. FEBA’s members also shared practical insights as Angela Ruttledge (IE, FoodCloud) explained how her organization supported the Irish government in shaping national food redistribution policies, contributing valuable expertise to the Atlas project.

Solutions across the value chain

Representatives from across the agrifood world brought their experiences and ideas as well.

On the side of consumers, Els Bruggeman (BE, EuroConsumers) highlighted how communicating sustainability through affordability can help households produce less waste while saving money. Whereas Els Bedert (BE, EuroCommerce) in representation of retailers, pointed out the carriers barriers to food donations, such as complex paperwork, unclear policy jurisdiction and inconsistent tax incentives across the EU. Finally manufacturers through Alessandro Piccione’s (BE, FoodDrinkEurope) and Jovana Mitrovic’s (NL, Tetra Pak) interventions reaffirmed the food industry’s commitment to sustainability, with Mitrovic emphasizing how innovative packaging and continuous research can extend product shelf life and reduce food waste.

Moving forward together

By the end of the event, one message stood out: only through collaboration across sectors can we create lasting solutions.

At EuroFIR, we strongly support these kinds of dialogues. They help bridge the gap between policy and everyday action — engaging everyone along the food chain in building a fairer, stronger, and more sustainable food system for all.

EuroFIR e-learning module “Nutrient analysis for non-chemists”

The EuroFIR e-learning modules were created together with the University of Wageningen and the software company Topshare, both based in The Netherlands. EuroFIR acknowledges the University of Wageningen for it’s great effort and excellent teamwork in this activity as a partner of the EuroFIR project. You have to agree on the licensing agreement Full version, 2010. (zip file – 27 MB) To run the full version of the e-learning module first read these instructions: 1) first download the zip file on to your computer Full 2) open the folder ‘EuroFIR e-learning’ 3) open the file with the name ‘index.html’ in your web browser and start the program. Recommended web browsers are Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox or Safari for Mac users. Your browser may be protected against pop-ups. In this case the following message is displayed on top: “To help protect your system…..” Click on this message and select: Allow blocked contents.

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