On 28 May 2020, the German Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, announced on social media the winners of the 5th ‘Too good for the bin!’ - Federal Award.

The award honours outstanding projects which aim to increase appreciation for food and reduce food losses and waste along the whole food supply chain. Each winning project includes creative and innovative ideas, ensures engagement and serves as a role model for other projects. A jury of seven experts honoured the following projects in their respective areas:

Agriculture and production:

The project “Gelbes Band” is executed by the district Esslingen. Fruit trees in orchards are marked with a yellow ribbon as a sign that people can pick up the fruit. 

© Jens Häußler

Retail:

The EasyFill GmbH developed a sustainable shelf system for supermarkets, which facilitates a first in – first out rotation. The shelves can be easily filled up by a rotating mechanism. This way, food products with the shortest ‘best before date’ are the first ones to be bought by consumers.  

© Jens Lidén

Food services:

The cafeterias of MAN Energy Solutions SE are operated on a sustainable concept, called “Foodversity”, in order to reduce food waste and packaging waste which occur during the staff catering.

© MAN ES

Digitisation:

The start-up “Delicious Data” developed a forecasting system to predict the amount of food which is sold in canteens or cafeterias in the course of one day. In this way, overproduction can be avoided.

© Delicious Data GmbH

Community and education:

The Johann Heinrich August Duncker Secondary School in Rathenow integrated the topic of food waste in the framework of its regular school lessons. The project received the ‘Too good for the bin!’ award, as well as a sponsorship prize of 7,500 euros.

© Jana Brandstäter

Efforts to shift behaviour towards sustainable nutrition patterns, while reducing food losses and waste, are important. In this regard, a second sponsorship prize of 7,500 euros was also awarded to another nominee of the ‘community and education’ category. The second winning project "Give food waste no chance!", carried out by the Munich association KinderLeicht e.V. offers workshops in schools.

© KinderLeicht e.V.

Related links:

• More information on the winners and nominees [content in DE]
• General information on food waste in Germany