The REFRESH final results brochure provides an overview of the work undertaken within the project including key insights and links to the results that are available online.

In 2019, REFRESH has come to an end. Since 2015, the 26 project partners from across Europe and China have made considerable progress in tackling food losses and food waste along production and supply chains with an integrated approach towards a more sustainable and responsible food system. This video summarises the main activities and findings of the project.

This report analyses two specific activities within REFRESH: First, the dissemination of the Framework for Action (“Blueprint”) that helps national governments to build Voluntary Agreements with the relevant stakeholders in the sector to reduce food loss and waste and second, work with Standardisation Bodies, specifically barcode standards used by retailers.

This report provides a detailed overview of REFRESH’s activities as well as an assessment of their outreach and impact. It also reflects on the lessons learned of REFRESH’s communication activities, including barriers and success formats.

In this PhD thesis several interventions are analyzed in order to reduce the food waste of retailers, or to re-use food leftovers. The interventions tested are: Discounting nearly expired products, a dynamic shelf life, the incorporation of substitution behavior in the ordering process of the retailer and the re-use of leftovers by a soup kitchen. All interventions show potential to reduce food waste. 

With the close of REFRESH in June 2019 the EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis congratulates to the success of an outstanding research project. In a video message, he says that with its concrete actions and tools developed, REFRESH results will continue to guide EU policy for food waste reduction. The Commissioner himself was involved in many events and activities of the project. In particular, Commissioner Andriukaitis underlines the value of REFRESH insights on how to better understand and reduce consumer food waste and the voluntary agreements that have been established in four EU countries and that will guide the way for more public private partnerships.

The first Chinese workshop focusing on catering lean management was launched in Beijing on May 13-14th, 2019. It was attended by 54 representatives from the domestic catering industry and the supply chain.

On May 9th, one day before the REFRESH final conference 2019 that was organized in cooperation with the Barcelona Design Centre, four on hands experience were offered, featuring food waste innovators from business and civil society in the Barcelona area. One of these was "Zero Waste Mission", a hands-on workshop on how to make bioplastics from food waste, organized by Ignacio de Juan-Creix and Irene Ródenas from PLAT Institute of Augmented Gastronomy.

The China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA) Chain Catering Committee and CCFA China Sustainable Consumption Round-table jointly launched the "Voluntary Action Plan of CCFA Chain Catering Enterprises on Food Waste Reduction Initiative”. The launch event on March 13, 2019 in Shanghai was witnessed and participated by 500 Chinese catering companies, with nearly 1400 people present. This event was supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UN ENVIRONMENT), NET PLANET NETWORK, the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and the REFRESH project team.

The nature, content, and format of on-pack guidance is thought to play a role in food waste generation, and therefore potentially in food waste prevention. The main objective of this study was to examine the effects on consumers of different contents and formats of guidance on food and drink packaging, using large-scale experiments.

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