EU Food Loss and Waste Prevention Hub

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic

Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic

The goal of the Slovak Republic is to prevent the generation of food losses and food waste along the whole food supply chain - from primary production to the final consumer.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development cooperates with the Ministry of Environment, the National Agricultural and Food Centre – Food Research Institute and the Statistical Office in order to collect data on food losses and food waste.

A pilot implementation of the methodology for measuring food waste for individual parts of the food chain (households, school canteens) took place in Slovakia.

In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic adopted the plan for prevention of food waste, which includes the following measures:

• elaborating of a list of causes of food loss and waste in individual segments of the food chain, together with a proposal for the possibility of mitigating their impact on waste or food waste (e.g. optimization of production processes, application of the best available technologies, etc.);
• changing behaviours through investment subsidies, economic incentives, price signals, taxes, sanctions, benchmarking (performance measurement and competitive pressure);
• establishing a platform of cooperation to quantify and reduce food losses and waste;
• encouraging the most efficient uses of food losses and waste (e. g. the use of former food as feed in accordance with applicable legislation);
• consider simplifying the rules for donating / handing over foods past their minimum durability date for feed purposes;
• adopt provisions to facilitate food donations for charitable purposes.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development established the National Platform for the Prevention of Food Losses and Food Waste, which serves as a mean of communication and exchange of information and experiences between stakeholders and supports all actors involved in the prevention of food waste.

The waste prevention program for the years 2019-2025 highlights the need to prioritise waste prevention (also food waste) before other options, in line with the waste management hierarchy.

Food waste prevention measures are also included into other programs. For example, primary producers are allowed to sell small quantities of products to the final consumer or to local retail establishments directly supplying the final consumer. In the case of plant commodities, fruit and vegetables that do not meet certain quality requirements (unsatisfactory shape, size) can also be sold in this way. In addition, these primary producers can supply their products to school canteens as part of the school programs.  

In order to facilitate food donation, the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No 152/1995 Coll. on foodstuff as amended (§ 6 par. 7) allows tax breaks for food business operators that donate food. In Slovakia, it is possible to sell food after the date of min. durability. A legal obligation applies to an operator with a sales area of more than 400 m2. This operator, no later than 48 hours before the sale of foods that have expired, offer these foods to at least one charitable organization. The operator may sell foods after the date of min. durability, if the charitable organization does not express interest in these foods or refuses them within 48 hours of the offer.

At the beginning of 2023, Agricultural Paying Agency published call no. 64/PRV/2023 for submitting requests for a non-refundable financial contribution from the Rural Development Program of the Slovak Republic. The call concerns with investments related to the provision of aid to persons in material deprivation, such as storage capacities and transport capacities necessary for the distribution of food aid to the target group.

National Agricultural and Food Centre prepared questionnaire "Register of charitable organizations and donated food" which will be used for monitoring of donated food.

National Agricultural and Food Centre is working to create a register of charitable aid and draft state aid schemes to support their food donation activities. The goal is to create an electronic register of charitable organizations in the Slovak Republic that will enable the acquisition and periodic validation/updation of complex information about the charitable organizations, material and technical equipment, needs in connection with the donation of food, about the method of obtaining food and handling it, current quantitative capacities for food donation and about other information that can subsequently be used to optimize the processes associated with food donation.

Several activities to raise awareness on the issue of food loss and waste have been organised (e.g. exhibition stands, discussion forums). The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with the National Agricultural and Food Centre – Food Research Institute has prepared informative materials for various stages of the food supply chain, containing guidelines, instructions, examples of good practice, etc. that can be used to provide information about food losses and waste during exhibitions an other events.

A lecture on food waste measurement in school catering facilities was presented in a professional seminar for school canteen managers entitled ‘Individual approach to child nutrition and food quality from Slovak regions’.