National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction

The National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction, which the then Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture presented in February 2019, focuses on the entire food supply chain. The aim is to halve the quantity of food waste in Germany by 2030 and to reduce food losses. To achieve this, the Strategy is continually refined and developed.

Food waste in Germany

In Germany, around 10.8 million tonnes of food waste are generated every year (as of 2022). Anyone reducing food wastage hence actively contributes to resource conservation and climate stewardship.

Food waste is generated in every sector – from primary production and processing all the way to the retail sector, the restaurant and catering sector, and private households. The food supply chain should therefore, as far as possible, be adapted to prevent food waste and losses in every sector and at the interfaces between the sectors. To this end, all stakeholders need to change their behaviour, and joint efforts are necessary.

Recording of food waste in Germany

Within the scope of EU reporting, German food waste levels along the entire food supply chain have been calculated annually since 2020 and reported to the EU Commission the following year. The Commission now has the figures for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022.

In addition, wholesalers and retailers participating in the Pact against Food Waste and companies in the away-from-home catering sector that have signed the commitments contained in the target agreement between the BMLEH and the industry associations regularly report on their successes and actions taken.

Current situation regarding the National Strategy

The “Good Food for Germany” nutrition strategy pursues the sustainability goals of the 2030 Agenda, in particular SDG 12.3. Together with all stakeholders, the aim is to halve food waste in all sectors in Germany by 2030, and to reduce food losses. To this end, the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction  , which was adopted in 2019, is continually refined and developed. The reduction of food waste is a task for society as a whole. Civil society, industry, administration and scientists are therefore called upon to become actively involved:

The governance of the National Strategy was revised in early 2025  in order to promote the active engagement of all stakeholders and intensify cross-sectorial cooperation. The governance provides the framework for actors from five sectors of the food supply chain to work on implementing the 2025-2030 National Strategy to Reduce Food Wastage.

BMLEH’s partners in implementing the National Strategy

A number of partners support the BMLEH, the primary governance body, in implementing the National Strategy in order to reach the different stakeholders and target groups with tailored measures and initiate changes in the economic sectors and among consumers:

• Centre of Excellence for Food Waste and Food Loss Prevention (KLAV): Since 2025 the Centre of Excellence has been the focal point for companies and associations involved in primary production, processing, food retail and away-from-home catering in order to effectively reduce food wastage. The Centre of Excellence provides practical information, exchanges on best practices and training opportunities, particularly targeting companies at the beginning of the food supply chain and the interfaces between the sectors.
  The Centre of Excellence will build on the results of the series of BMLEH events on “Joint action to combat food waste – for a new value appreciation chain“ and from autumn 2025 will continue the dialogue started during these events. The eight events in this series aim to promote intersectoral exchange, jointly focus on food waste at the interfaces and develop potential solutions.
• Too good for the bin! coordinating body: The BMELH launched the Too good for the bin! (Zu gut für die Tonne!) initiative in March 2012 to raise the public's awareness of the issue of food wastage and enhance consumers' appreciation of food. Too good for the bin! is continually developed and refined by the coordinating body and the BMLEH, and its different measures and services aim to bring about changes in behaviour. One important measure is an annual nationwide awareness-raising week.
• Dialogue Forum on Private Households 2.0: The dialogue forum supported by the BMELH was launched in October 2023 and is coordinated by Slow Food Deutschland and the Technical University of Berlin. In the period up until September 2026, the forum is intended to optimise the measurement methods developed in the first dialogue forum, make these m available as a user-friendly app, work with external partners to develop and implement new, effective measures at consumer interfaces and continue to promote further networking and exchange between all relevant stakeholders. The dialogue forum will also work together closely with the BMELH’s Too good for the bin! initiative.

• Federal Government/Länder Platform: The platform improves the exchange among the administrations/ministries involved and provides impetus in connection with the reduction of food wastage. The platform also helps share best practices, information and findings in connection with activities and results for food waste prevention at federal and Länder level and facilitates cooperation between the platform’s members.

Target agreements

The BMLEH also concluded target agreements with associations and away-from-home catering companies. These are also implemented with the help of partners:

• Pact against Food Waste: The Pact was agreed in June 2023 between the BMLEH and 14 German food wholesalers and retailers; it sets out binding targets and concrete reduction measures. The implementation of the target agreement, in particular the achievement of the goal to reduce food waste in their enterprises by 30 percent by 2025 and by half by 2030, is monitored and verified by the Thünen Institute for Market Analysis (TI), an independent institution within the remit of the BMELH.

The TI’s outcome report for the first year of implementation draws a positive interim conclusion: according to the report, many enterprises were able to significantly reduce their waste – by 24 percent in total.

• Centre of Excellence for Food Service ((CoE)): The Centre of Excellence implements the target agreement for away-from-home catering the BMLEH concluded with the industry’s associations in 2021. It advises individual enterprises from the sector and canvasses them to sign up to the target agreement on away-from-home catering. Between 2022 and 2024, the CoE was supported by the BMLEH and headed by United Against Waste (UAW). During this time, the Thünen Institute as a scientific partner carried out sustainability assessments showing how effective the implemented reduction measures were. Since 2025 the CoE has been continued independently by UAW.

Food donations

In order to promote food donations, the National Strategy helps support food bank projects and examine legal changes to make it easier to donate food: 

• TafelConnect: Since October 2023 the BMLEH has been funding TafelConnect, a new digitalisation project by Tafel Deutschland (the Tafel food bank organisation). The goal of this project is to digitalise the process for large donations (more than ten pallets), for example from food producers, via the Tafel head organisation and regional distribution centres. This project builds on another project sponsored by the BMLEH, the so-called “eco platform”, which was supported between 2019 and 2022. The eco platform focussed on simplifying and improving the interface between food-donating companies, such as local food retailers, and local food banks.
• Legal opinion: The BMELH commissioned a legal opinion that was published in June 2024. The opinion entitled “Identification, appraisal and recommendations for action regarding legal obstacles in the context of food waste prevention and food donations” laid the foundation for introducing legal changes to make it easier to donate food. The different regulatory proposals address both the EU and the national level. As a consequence, the BMLEH is having an exchange with several stakeholders and has already presented a proposal to amend EU food law provisions to the EU.

Concluded projects and final report on phase 1

Between 2020 and 2023, sector-specific dialogue forums were set up and held for the sectors along the food supply chain, from primary production, processing, wholesale, retail and away-from-home catering to private households.  The members of these forums worked together and were supported scientifically in order to identify the greatest potential for reduction, develop specific measures to reduce food waste and loss and, where possible, develop sector-specific targets. Two national dialogue forums were also held during this period. This first phase of the implementation of the National Strategy was also evaluated throughout the entire process. The final report was published in March 2025 and can be viewed under the link below. Please go to this website to view the detailed documentation of the previous projects.

Published  in basic text format on 16 May 2025.

Released 10. Jun 2025 as article