Coordinated by the University of Deusto and comprising 29 partners from 10 different European countries, the FOODRUS project aims to limit food losses and waste, and to promote resource efficiency across all stages of the agri-food value chain.
Agri-food value chains, from primary production to final household consumption and disposal, are notoriously inefficient. Globally, a third of all food produced is lost or wasted, and in Europe alone this wastage costs the economy €143 billion each year.
A newly launched European project, FOODRUS, is now looking to tackle these challenges by creating resilient food systems across nine European regions. To achieve this, the project will test 23 circular solutions through diverse forms of collaborative innovation, including: technological (blockchain solutions to manage food losses and waste), social (educational materials and citizen science activities to promote sustainable consumption habits), organisational (last mile networks to foster local consumption and donation), and fiscal (new ‘Pay As You Throw’ schemes).
“These innovative solutions will empower and engage all actors in local food systems, from farmers to end-consumers and everyone in between, to build a multi-actor alliance to tackle the challenge of food loss and waste.”
Ainhoa Alonso, FOODRUS Coordinator from the University of Deusto
FOODRUS will test these solutions across three pilot projects:
- a cross-regional Spanish pilot focused on vegetables and prepared salads;
- a Danish pilot concentrated on meat and fish;
- and a Slovakian pilot analysing the bread value chain.
To promote the replicability of the tested solutions FOODRUS will also prepare best practice toolkits and will involve six European regions as ‘Followers’: Valencia (Spain), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Linz (Austria), Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and Halandri (Greece).
“At Greenovate! Europe we are delighted to be a part of the very challenging FOODRUS project, and especially excited to lead the work in disseminating the solutions which will build resilient local food systems that prevent food waste and losses across Europe; an ever more important challenge.”
Vicky Mosteyrin, Managing Director at Greenovate! Europe
The FOODRUS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and will run from 2020 until 2024.
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Key information about the project
Topic: RUR-07-2020
Coordinator: University of Deusto
Duration: 3.5 years
Budget: over €6 million
For more information, please contact:
Ainhoa Alonso | University of Deusto | ainhoa.alonso@deusto.es
For European media and press enquiries:
Daniel Lissoni | Greenovate! Europe | d.lissoni@greenovate-europe.eu
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