15/12/2025
After several months of preparation, the CEN Workshop on food loss quantification in primary production officially commenced on Friday, 12 December. The online kick-off meeting brought together stakeholders from across sectors to introduce the proposed standardisation process and set the foundations for the development of a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA).
Hosted by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the Workshop is conducted by the Spanish Standardization Body (UNE), acting as Secretariat. During the meeting, participants were introduced to the concept and purpose of a CWA, highlighting its voluntary and consensus-based nature and its role as a flexible standardisation instrument responding to emerging needs. Detailed information was also provided on how the workshop operates, who can participate, and how contributors can engage in drafting, reviewing, and approving the agreement.
The FOLOU coordinators presented the project’s objectives and its motivation for launching the CEN Workshop. They emphasised the lack of harmonised methodologies for quantifying food loss in primary production, the EU regulation gaps and the resulting challenges for comparability, policy-making, and effective mitigation actions.
By initiating the CWA process, FOLOU aims to consolidate the methodology developed through its cross-sector case studies into a practical and widely applicable standardised document. This will enable more accurate measurement of food loss, increase awareness of “hidden” losses, and support improved decision-making across the food system, including producers, public authorities, and the research community.
A key outcome of the meeting was the presentation of the proposed general structure of the CWA. The draft methodology was outlined, including its definitional framework and quantification process based on the FOLOU approach. The presentation explained how the methodology can be applied across diverse production contexts, including agriculture, livestock, and aquaculture.
Specific methodological elements were introduced, such as the definition and scope of food loss, sampling strategies, measurement at different operational levels, and the extrapolation of direct measurements to farm and territorial levels. Concrete examples were shared to illustrate how the methodology can be implemented in practice, highlighting its flexibility and adaptability to a wide range of territories, activities, and food categories.
The kick-off meeting established a shared understanding of both the standardisation process and the technical foundations of the proposed CWA. Participants were invited to actively engage in the workshop by contributing comments and supporting the development of the agreement through to its anticipated approval in the first semester of 2026.
Through continued collaboration, the CEN Workshop aims to deliver a robust, practical, and consensus-based CWA that will support more comprehensive and reliable quantification of food losses at the primary production stage across Europe.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program, under Grant Agreement: 101084106. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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