In February 2019, the German Federal Cabinet adopted the 'National Strategy for Reducing Food Waste', setting a framework for the future direction of this initiative. Among other things, it stipulated that an inter-ministerial "Indicator 12.3 Working Group" should prepare the data bases and methods for nationwide balancing of food waste generation (baseline). Based on existing 2015 data, this status quo analysis will be used as a starting point to agree on milestones for the respective sectors. It is also the starting point to assess progress and for continuous monitoring.

The baseline 2015 meaning food waste along the entire value chain, divided into five sub-sectors (primary production, processing, trade, out-of-home catering, private households), must be calculated in order to determine the achievement of set targets and their interim steps. This indicator is intended to report on food waste in tons of fresh mass and serve as a basis for continuous reporting between 2020 and 2030. The necessary monitoring builds on this baseline and will be successively expanded in subsequent years to reflect developments.