PRESS RELEASE

MILAN AND ITALY MODELS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FOOD WASTE

Maria Chiara Gadda (Chamber of Deputies), Esselunga, Milano Ristorazione, Too Good to Go, ValueBin and Univel at Competere.eu’s event

Milan, Thursday October 28th, 2021 – Milan and Italy are virtuous examples in Europe when it comes to the fight against food waste. This is what emerged from the online conference “From Packaging to the Table: Sustainable supply chains and good practices against food waste” organized by the Sustainable Nutrition platform of the think tank Competere.eu. Participants to the roundtable included Maria Chiara Gadda (Chamber of Deputies, Italia Viva) and main proponent of the so-called “anti-waste” law, Ida Schillaci, Head of CSR Office at Esselunga, Bernardo Notarangelo, President of Milano Ristorazione, Alessandro Bracci, Technical supervisor at Univel, Ilaria Ricotti, PR Manager at Too Good to Go, and Giovanni Fantoni Modena, Creative director and co-founder of ValueBin.

According to a report by Waste Watchers International, Italians binned about half a kilo of food per person each week of 2020, against Germans, Canadians and Chinese’ one-kilo waste and against Americans’ 1.5kg.

The event sought to explore the cost of such a waste, as well as the initiatives that, along the entire supply and consumption chain, encourage salvaging and recycling food surplus as the last mile of sustainability and circular economy. Starting from the institutions that, according to Maria Chiara Gadda, «must eliminate the bottlenecks along the entire supply chain» and that  «have given the third sector the appropriate normative tools  to salvage food: now they must implemented.» The 166/2016 law also had an effect on the behavior of single citizens by «bringing the topic of food salvage and donation to a realm of normalcy.»

Technological innovation is just as essential, and Esselunga has long employed it to avoid food surplus in its supermarkets and to lengthen the shelf life of its products. These innovations «have brought us to salvaging about 60% of surplus in 2020 alone», highlighted Ida Schillaci. A strategy shared by Alessandro Bracci as Univel specializes in intelligent packaging for the protection of foodstuffs from deterioration and in active communication of their level of decay.

Bernardo Notarangelo, President of Milano Ristorazione, gave voice to the catering sector and introduced the Snack-Saving Bag ‘Io non spreco’ (‘I don’t waste’), through which children can be taught to store leftovers from school meals to consume that at a later moment. Notarangelo also highlighted the fundamental aspect of health:  «It would be easier to reduce waste by giving children only foods they enjoy, like pizza. But the battle for a healthy diet is extremely important, and Milano Ristorazione is just as engaged on this frontline.»

The word then turned to the world of tech, with Ilaria Ricotti stressing the importance of linking shop owners with consumers thanks to the strategy of the Magic Box or «surprise bags», as well as an awareness campaigns to correctly interpret best-before labels. Last but not least, Zeroed, ValueBin’s newest app, helps consumers to eliminate waste, emissions and negative health effects of the products they purchase by complementing existing but not so informative labels like Nutriscore. Not to mention packaging materials, that «play a key role in food conservation: our algorithm favors the most evolved and best performing ones, while keeping up to date with the latest innovations in producing companies», concluded co-founder Giovanni Fantoni Modena.

Competere – Policies for Sustainable Development
Press office:
Antonio Picasso – Senior Analyst, apicasso@competere.eu
Benedetta Annicchiarico – Junior Fellow, bannicchiarico@competere.eu

Competere.eu (www.competere.eu)

Competere – Policies for sustainable development (Competere.eu) is a think tank based in Rome, Milan and Brussels. Its analysis, research and advocacy activities are focused on innovation and sustainability across economic sectors, from tech to agri-food. Competere’s team is composed of academics, researchers and experts that share the goal of formulating policies and finding solutions to society’ complex challenges based on scientific evidence. Competere also provides consulting and supporting services to both public institutions and private organizations, with the scientific approach as its fundamental principle.