ROSETTA

The “Reducing food waste due to marketing standards through alternative market access” (ROSETTA) project started in January 2024 and aims at addressing this issue by conducting transdisciplinary research involving multiple stakeholders. The project will estimate the amount of food waste generated by marketing standards, develop sustainable solutions for utilising this waste, and assess any trade-offs. Pilot experiments will be conducted in five use cases across EU countries, focusing on fruit, vegetables, cereals, dairy, and meat. By combining lab and field research, along with life cycle sustainability assessment, the project aims to validate and optimise solutions that can reduce food waste by 60%-80% through alternative market access for suboptimal foods.

On January 17, the consortium reunited for a fruitful kick-off meeting in Thessaloniki, setting the stage for tackling food waste caused by marketing standards. The consortium gathered again on June 13 for the semestral meeting in Ashton, Dublin, to discuss the project status and the action plan for the 2nd semester.

So far, the consortium has produced a Dissemination and Communication Plan, a Management and Quality Plan and a Data Management Plan, and developed a digital toolkit to share assessment data, good practices and solutions. SAFE conducted a policy research to investigate the interaction between public and private food marketing standards as well as the future