EU Food Loss and Waste Prevention Hub

DECOJovem is an educational program of DECO – Associação Portuguesa para a Defesa do Consumidor (portuguese association for consummer protection), a private non-profit public utility association.

DECOJovem Programme is a consumer education programme aimed at all schools educational levels, with the slogan Empower future consumers.

One of the initiatives with greatest impact is the Green Chef Programme, now in its 7th edition, whereby each school year, students are challenged to produce original and creative videos that demonstrate giving new life to food that would otherwise go to waste. 

In each edition of Green Chef, DECOJovem selects a food that should be the basis of the recipe and the evaluation criteria also take into consideration aspects such as the choice of healthy recipes, sustainability and impact on the family budget. The competition jury includes members from DECO, the Portuguese Environment Agency, the Directorate-General for Education and the National Commission for Fighting Food Waste. The winning teams receive a prize.

The 7th Edition of the Green Chef has already found the best recipes for the 2022/2023 school year.

In this edition, children and young people from Portuguese schools were invited to be "chefs", creating recipes based on bread. The big winners of this edition were:

- Level A (1st CEB students): "As Joaninhas da Toca" team, from Aldeia de Joanes Basic School, in Fundão, with a recipe for rabbit sausage and apple purée. 

- Group B (2nd and 3rd cycle students): "DRS" team, from Rebordosa School, in Paredes, with a recipe for a dry soup.

- Level C (secondary students): team "Lima CHEFS", from the Ponte de Lima Secondary School, with a recipe for “Rabanadas” in the oven.

A win-win initiative where the Planet is the big winner!

To find out more about this initiative, explore DECOJovem's resources area.