The resolution approved by the European Parliament calls on the Commission for urgent measures to halve food waste by 2025 and to improve access to food for needy EU citizens. Among the proposed measures, MEPs suggest that foods close to their expiry dates and damaged food products should be sold at discounted prices, to make them more accessible to people in need.

The European Parliament adopted in plenary session a resolution in which it calls on the European Commission for urgent measures to halve food waste by 2025 and to improve access to food for needy EU citizens. MEPs are concerned by perfectly edible food which is being wasted. The resolution suggests that in order to promote existing initiatives in some Member States to recover unsold food and offer it to needy citizens. In November 2011, MEPs already adopted this resolution on the Agriculture Commission at the EP.

The measures suggested in the resolution include, a dual-date labelling could be introduced to show until when food may be sold (sell-by date) and until when it may consumed (use-by date), in order to avoid situations in which retailers offer food too close to its expiry date and thus increasing the potential for wastage. In addition, MEPs propose that to enable consumers to buy just the amounts they need, food packaging should be offered in a range of sizes and designed to conserve food better. They add that to drastically reduce food wastage by 2025, new awareness campaigns should be run at both EU and national levels to inform the public how to avoid wasting food, says the resolution. Furthermore, Member States should introduce school and college courses explaining how to store, cook and dispose of food.

According to the Commission, up to 50% of edible and healthy food gets wasted in EU households, supermarkets, restaurants and along the food supply chain each year, while 79 million EU citizens live beneath the poverty line and 16 million depend on food aid from charitable institutions.