New eyes on climate friendly food. Combating massive food waste in the supply chain.

Food waste associated with public procurement practices is strongly under-emphasized. There is no comprehensive estimate of the total food waste that arises in connection with food service and dining in public institutions, but it is estimated that it is in the same order of magnitude as in the private - about 30%.

Individual food service providers to the public register a food waste of up to DKK 20 million. DKK annually, as an unintended result the regulatory framework in public food procurement. Previous attempts to minimize this food waste have resulted in the food waste being moved to another part of the food's path from field to table. This new project partnership, with a focus on public procurement and the specific practices in the individual links in the supply chain, will create transparency in both quantities and causal links to the unintended food waste. Based on this, this project partnership develops concepts and tools to minimize this food waste. The project will be hosted at Roskilde University, which through interviews, workshops and working living labs will create a framework for a collaborative project design, involving project partners from two of the country's largest wholesalers and suppliers to the public; Hørkram and Dansk Cater, together with representatives from the City of Copenhagen's public food procurement (which regulates purchases for food to 70,000 citizens on a daily basis). This unique cross-cutting and dialogue-based project partnership opens up access to information on everyday practices across sectors. This access is essential to create the necessary research-based knowledge of practice and to develop application-oriented solutions to minimize food waste