Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The policy need of data on food waste and food waste prevention can be found on the following website of Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (SANTE): Food waste (EN).
Further information on food waste and food waste prevention initiatives can be found on the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste, that has supported the Commission in its work to adopt EU guidelines to facilitate food donations and the use of food, no longer intended for human consumption, as animal feed. A summary of frequenly asked questions is available in this communication: Frequently asked questions: Reducing food waste in the EU.
3.2. Classification system
Commission delegated decision (EU) 2019/1597 shall apply by stages of the food supply chain, as indicated in its ANNEX I (Attribution of food waste to the different stages of the food supply chain); the stages are including the sections of NACE rev. 2 activities, as in the following scheme:
Primary production (A01_A03_FOOD):
Section A Agriculture, forestry and fishing:
Division 01 Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities
Division 03 Fishing and aquaculture
Processing and manufacturing (C10_C11):
Section C Manufacturing
Division 10 Manufacture of food products
Division 11 Manufacture of beverages
Retail and other distribution of food (G46_G47_FOOD):
Section G Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles
Division 46 Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
Division 47 Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
Restaurants and food services (I55_I56_N-S_FOOD):
Section I Accommodation and food service activities
Division 55 Accommodation
Division 56 Food and beverage service activities
Sections N, O, P, Q, R, S
Divisions covering activities in which food services are provided (such as staff catering, healthcare, education, travel catering)
Households (HH):
‘Households’ as referred to in Annex I Section 8 point 1.2 to Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics: Waste generated by households
According to article 2 of Commission delegated decision (EU) 2019/1597 Member States shall measure each year the amount of food waste generated in a full calendar year (article 2 point 1) and the amounts of food waste shall be measured in tonnes of fresh mass.
The indication of these amounts is provided under the code Waste collected (COL) under indicator Waste management operations.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The reporting covers only food waste; food waste consists of parts of food intended to be ingested (edible food) and parts of food not intended to be ingested (inedible food). Food waste is any food that has become waste under these conditions:
it has entered the food supply chain,
it then has been removed or discarded from the food supply chain or at the final consumption stage,
it is finally destined to be processed as waste.
Food losses occurring before crops and/or animals become “food” (occurring at the stage prior to crops being harvested or during the rearing of animals) are not accounted for as food and hence are not quantified as “food waste”. These may include:
crops not harvested
unharvested fruit and vegetables ploughed directly into the fields,
death of animals before slaughtering,
food that cannot enter the food supply chain due to food safety requirements (e.g. contamination),
fishes or fish parts discarded off board in the sea or rivers before reaching the port
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
1. Definitions
According to Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), article 3, point 4a, “food waste means all food as defined in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council that has become waste”; in simple words, food waste is any food and inedible parts of food, that has entered in the food supply chain, that then has been removed or discarded from the food supply chain or at the final consumption stage, that is finally destined to be processed as waste, either separately collected as food waste or collected in municipal waste; moreover, food waste is any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed
Commission delegated decision (EU) 2019/1597 summarises in point 3 of the recital that food waste does not include losses at stages of the food supply chain where certain products have not yet become food.
Member States shall measure the amount of food waste for all stages of the food supply chain using the methodology set out in Annex III of at least every four years, as stated in its article 2 point 2.
Annex III (Methodology for the in-depth measurement of food waste) foresees the use of one or more of these methodologies, by stages of the food supply chain:
"Direct measurement" and/or "Waste composition analysis": for all stages of the food supply chain
"Mass balance": for stages "Primary production", "Processing and manufacturing" and "Retail and other distribution of food"
"Questionnaires and interviews" and/or "Coefficients and production statistics": for stages "Primary production" and "Processing and manufacturing"
"Counting/scanning": for stages "Retail and other distribution of food" and "Restaurants and food services"
"Diaries": for stages "Restaurants and food services" and "Households"
For the first reporting year (reference year 2020) Member States may use data already collected under existing arrangements for the year 2017 or later (article 2 point 4).
Finally, article 2 point 3 permits the use of the methodology set out in Annex IV when the methodology set out in Annex III is not used.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical unit is the reporting company or institution. Statistical unit may vary across reporting countries. Reporting units might be: producers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, enterprises, food services, restaurants, local units, establishments, waste managers or households, etc.
3.6. Statistical population
Food waste amounts, disaggregated by stages of the food supply chain, generated within a country per year.
3.7. Reference area
EU Member State and, on a voluntary basis, EEA/EFTA countries and other countries or regions.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data on food waste from reference year 2020 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Tonnes of fresh mass,
Kilogram per capita, based on the annual average of the population: table ‘Demographic balance and crude rates’ (demo_gind), demographic indicator: average population – total (indic_de=AVG).
The reference period is the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) establishes an annual reporting obligation on measurements of the levels of food waste (article 9 in points 1g, 5, 6 and 8).
There is no data sharing with other international organizations; international organizations can use the data as published in the dissemination database.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 233/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The Member States are responsible for the confidentiality treatment of their data (primary and secondary). Currently, there are not confidential data in the database. In case of confidentiality claims, confidential data is not treated: the cells appears as missing with a confidentiality flag.
8.1. Release calendar
There is no release calendar, data dissemination is explained in item 9 below.
8.2. Release calendar access
See 8.1.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data received by 30 of June, 18 months after the end of the reference period (T+18; where T = reference year), will be published three months later T+21). An update of the dataset may be done in March of the following year (T+27), in the case of reception of major revisions from several countries that impact the EU aggregates.
Reporting countries submit, together with the completed tables, an appropriate description of how the data have been compiled. That description shall also give an explanation of estimates and of definition differs.
11.1. Quality assurance
The original data collection is made by the Member States, while Eurostat collects and checks the assembled country compilations. The quality assurance and documentation of the quality is a joint responsibility of Eurostat and the Member States.
Certain data format checks are carried out during the data entry into the country questionnaire. The validation routines at Eurostat include checks related to consistency, plausibility, development over time as well as the analysis of the Quality report with regard to the methodology applied for the gathering of the reported data; in case further explanations are required, countries will receive requests of clarifications and are invited to insert additional information in the Quality report.
A validation report is submitted each year to the European Commission DG Sante, as the responsible body for the monitoring of the implementation of the Commission delegated decision (EU) 2019/1597.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Overall data are of good quality. Data are collected from reliable sources applying high standards with regard to the methodology and ensuring a high degree of comparability.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main users are: the European Commission (for purposes of monitoring waste legislation), the Council, the European Parliament, researchers, politicians, general public, etc.
No systematic user satisfaction survey has been conducted. User satisfaction is discussed with the main user from the European Commission.
12.3. Completeness
Reporting is mandatory and the dataset has a high level of completeness.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
See sections 10.7 and 11.1.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Data have to be submitted 18 months after the reference period (T+18). The delay between the reference period and the data publication is about 21 months (T+21).
14.2. Punctuality
Data have to be submitted 18 months after the reference period. Most countries respect the deadline, some countries deliver with a small delay. In a few cases the delay may be more than 6 months. One country has never sent the data.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The comparability across countries is good due to clear statistical concepts and definitions.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Reporting is mandatory, comparability over time is expected to be high already from reference year 2020.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not available.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Internal coherence is ensured by Eurostat thus aggregates are coherent with sub-aggregates.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, the following revision policy has been established for food waste and food waste prevention statistics:
All published data should be regarded as final unless indicated as provisional. Correction of errors is possible. There is no data revision calendar. Countries revisions are regularly checked upon arrival and published in September or in the event of a required update, that will occur in the case of reception of major revisions from several countries that impact the EU aggregates (see section 9) or in the event of a reporting error.
17.2. Data revision - practice
All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.
Reported errors that are deemed to be significant (at least one figure having more than 20% variation of the absolute value or impacting at least one EU aggregate by more than 3%) are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Corrections for other errors are carried out in connection with the regular scheduled data dissemination.
Data may be published even if they are missing for certain countries or flagged as provisional. Data with low reliability for certain countries are not published until a correction or a justification is provided (for instance, in the case of definition differ).
18.1. Source data
Competent authorities, like Ministries of Environment or of Agriculture, or Environmental Protection Agencies and/or national statistical institutes collect data from various sources:
Producers, Manufacturers, Retailers, Distributors or any small and medium food business enterprise.
Administrative sources such as municipalities or other local authorities (provinces, regions, etc.), waste collectors at municipal/local level, waste treatment facilities.
Waste reporting electronic registries (usually for mandatory reporting).
Volunteers (mainly for households food waste).
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
Data collection is done by reporting countries, either the Ministry of Environment or of Agriculture, or Environmental Protection Agencies.
Member States are transmitting data via questionnaires through EDAMIS.
The EDAMIS workflow for food waste is WASTE_FOOD_A.
The Member States also transmit a quality report included in the questionnaire, where mandatory information must be reported.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation is done by Eurostat in close cooperation with Member States' competent Authorities. Certain data format checks are carried out during the data entry into the questionnaire. The validation routines at Eurostat include checks related to consistency, plausibility, development over time as well as the analysis of the Quality report with regard to the methodology applied for the gathering of the reported data; in case further explanations are required, countries will receive clarification requests and are invited to insert additional information in the Quality report. In case, Member States can transmit revisions of data and information with the questionnaires. At present, the dissemination database contains exclusively fully validated country data, including explanations for outliers, definition differs and estimations.
18.5. Data compilation
The average population for the calculation of kg per person is taken from the table "Demographic balance and crude rates" (demo_gind, indic_de=AVG) in Eurobase.
When data are available from all the countries, the European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts (in tonnes of fresh mass). Estimated EU aggregates are compiled when the available countries represent at least 60% of the population and 55% of the number of countries defining the aggregate; fthe estimates, disaggregated by each stage of the food supply chain, have been calculated by summing the data amounts from the published countries and divided by the sum of the population of the published countries, and finally multiplied by the EU population. The formula is hereby summarised:
EU (by stage) = [SUM(published countries, by stage)/SUM(population published countries)]*(Total EU population).
18.6. Adjustment
The data are not adjusted; they are rounded to tonnes, or kilograms per capita, respectively.
Hereby, definition differs are summarised, by country, by year and by stage of the food supply chain:
Croatia
Year 2020.
Primary production (A01_A03_FOOD): Includes primary production facilities and family farms. Family farm survey was simplified. Family farms waste amounts reported may include also food waste from HH or may be based on different interpretation of food and food waste. Waste from food used as animal feed were not a separate category in the questionnaire, so there is a possibility that, due to lack of information and inaccurate answers, this waste is partly included.
Greece
Year 2020 and 2021.
Retail and other distribution of food (G46_G47_FOOD): Use of country data (combination of counting/scanning and coefficients) for the retail sector; however, the wholesale sector is not covered.
Italy
Year 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Primary production (A01_A03_FOOD): The study is made in the reporting year based on the annual survey on the waste generators that are obliged to mandatory report electronically the generated food waste. Data and information are integrated with the quantities estimated by ISPRA for those sectors that are fully or partially exempted from the mandatory declarations. A specific survey was carried out through the distribution of questionnaires to selected companies over the national territory for nine key sectors of primary production. Questionnaires were specific for each one of the sectors considered and requested specific data, such as the volumes of production by type of product, the unsold volumes and the enhancement or reuse volumes. Moreover, questionnaires referred to 11 months of data acquisition, so seasonal impacts could be considered. The share of the primary production not included in the survey was estimated using the JRC MFA (Method 1 of "Material Flow Estimation" sheet).
Year 2020.
Restaurants and food services (I55_I56_N-S_FOOD): The data have been calculated by means of a survey on 15 canteens belonging to companies and hospital subsectors, then multiplied by coefficients established in previous years for calculating the share in the overall canteens subsectors; finally, in order to evaluate the edible oil, oil share has been estimated from the JRC mass flow analysis and added up. However, no information was available on restaurants and other food services (excluding canteens) and these have not therefore been considered.
Year 2020 and 2021.
Households (HH): The household data have been calculated by subtracting to the direct measurement (occurring either at waste generation, or at transport and recovery or at waste disposal) the quantities reported in sectors "Retail and other distribution of food" and "Restaurants and food services".
Latvia
Year 2020 and 2021.
Primary production (A01_A03_FOOD): Definition differs because it was not possible to distinguish in production between processed and non processed fish waste. Most of processed fish waste is accounted in production. Processing and manufacturing (C10_C11): Definition differs because it was not possible to distinguish in production between processed and non processed fish waste. Most of processed fish waste is accounted in production.
Netherlands
Year 2022.
Retail and other distribution of food (G46_G47_FOOD): Food waste from retail is based on primary data from NL supermarket organisations. The data from supermarket organisations is scaled up in two steps: 1) from participating supermarkets to all supermarkets, 2) from share of supermarkets in all retail food purchases to all food retail. Orange peels are not included in the data. The supermarket data is from 2022. No other distribution or trade is included. Restaurants and food services (I55_I56_N-S_FOOD): Food waste in out-of-home consumption has not yet been gathered for the entire out-of-home sector. The amount specified is only based on earlier primary data from restaurants (scaled up nationally), no other type of out-of-home consumption is included.
Spain
Year 2020.
Households (HH): The survey Food Waste Panel takes into account only partially the inedible food waste: it accounts food that is thrown away as purchased, and food that is thrown away as cooked (including their inedible parts). It does not include the inedible part of food that is consumed uncooked (i.e.: banana peel), the inedible part of food that is discarded during cooking (i.e.: herbs as rosemary and bay leaf), or the inedible part of food that is consumed cooked (i.e.: bones).
Further country metadata information are available at the website (CIRCABC - Food waste). Please, use Chrome or MS EDGE for an optimal browsing experience on CIRCABC.
The policy need of data on food waste and food waste prevention can be found on the following website of Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (SANTE): Food waste (EN).
Further information on food waste and food waste prevention initiatives can be found on the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste, that has supported the Commission in its work to adopt EU guidelines to facilitate food donations and the use of food, no longer intended for human consumption, as animal feed. A summary of frequenly asked questions is available in this communication: Frequently asked questions: Reducing food waste in the EU.
17 December 2024
1. Definitions
According to Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), article 3, point 4a, “food waste means all food as defined in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council that has become waste”; in simple words, food waste is any food and inedible parts of food, that has entered in the food supply chain, that then has been removed or discarded from the food supply chain or at the final consumption stage, that is finally destined to be processed as waste, either separately collected as food waste or collected in municipal waste; moreover, food waste is any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed
Commission delegated decision (EU) 2019/1597 summarises in point 3 of the recital that food waste does not include losses at stages of the food supply chain where certain products have not yet become food.
Member States shall measure the amount of food waste for all stages of the food supply chain using the methodology set out in Annex III of at least every four years, as stated in its article 2 point 2.
Annex III (Methodology for the in-depth measurement of food waste) foresees the use of one or more of these methodologies, by stages of the food supply chain:
"Direct measurement" and/or "Waste composition analysis": for all stages of the food supply chain
"Mass balance": for stages "Primary production", "Processing and manufacturing" and "Retail and other distribution of food"
"Questionnaires and interviews" and/or "Coefficients and production statistics": for stages "Primary production" and "Processing and manufacturing"
"Counting/scanning": for stages "Retail and other distribution of food" and "Restaurants and food services"
"Diaries": for stages "Restaurants and food services" and "Households"
For the first reporting year (reference year 2020) Member States may use data already collected under existing arrangements for the year 2017 or later (article 2 point 4).
Finally, article 2 point 3 permits the use of the methodology set out in Annex IV when the methodology set out in Annex III is not used.
The statistical unit is the reporting company or institution. Statistical unit may vary across reporting countries. Reporting units might be: producers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, enterprises, food services, restaurants, local units, establishments, waste managers or households, etc.
Food waste amounts, disaggregated by stages of the food supply chain, generated within a country per year.
EU Member State and, on a voluntary basis, EEA/EFTA countries and other countries or regions.
The reference period is the calendar year.
See sections 10.7 and 11.1.
Tonnes of fresh mass,
Kilogram per capita, based on the annual average of the population: table ‘Demographic balance and crude rates’ (demo_gind), demographic indicator: average population – total (indic_de=AVG).
The average population for the calculation of kg per person is taken from the table "Demographic balance and crude rates" (demo_gind, indic_de=AVG) in Eurobase.
When data are available from all the countries, the European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts (in tonnes of fresh mass). Estimated EU aggregates are compiled when the available countries represent at least 60% of the population and 55% of the number of countries defining the aggregate; fthe estimates, disaggregated by each stage of the food supply chain, have been calculated by summing the data amounts from the published countries and divided by the sum of the population of the published countries, and finally multiplied by the EU population. The formula is hereby summarised:
EU (by stage) = [SUM(published countries, by stage)/SUM(population published countries)]*(Total EU population).
Competent authorities, like Ministries of Environment or of Agriculture, or Environmental Protection Agencies and/or national statistical institutes collect data from various sources:
Producers, Manufacturers, Retailers, Distributors or any small and medium food business enterprise.
Administrative sources such as municipalities or other local authorities (provinces, regions, etc.), waste collectors at municipal/local level, waste treatment facilities.
Waste reporting electronic registries (usually for mandatory reporting).
Volunteers (mainly for households food waste).
Data received by 30 of June, 18 months after the end of the reference period (T+18; where T = reference year), will be published three months later T+21). An update of the dataset may be done in March of the following year (T+27), in the case of reception of major revisions from several countries that impact the EU aggregates.
Data have to be submitted 18 months after the reference period (T+18). The delay between the reference period and the data publication is about 21 months (T+21).
The comparability across countries is good due to clear statistical concepts and definitions.
Reporting is mandatory, comparability over time is expected to be high already from reference year 2020.
