Strengthening data, tools, and regional policies for food loss monitoring

On 4 and 5 November, partners from the FOLOU project met in Barcelona for the first in-person knowledge exchange dedicated to the Twinning Regions. The programme is coordinated by ACR+ in collaboration with the Catalan Department for Climate Action (DARPA) and the University of Vic. 

Six Twinning Region entities attended the two-day event in person: the Wielkopolska Region (Poland), our ACR+ member Institute of Albanian Municipalities (IAM) and YPARD from Albania, the University of Pisa (Italy), ILVO (Belgium) and ELIKA (Spain). The meeting provided valuable opportunities to enhance knowledge transfer on FOLOU partners’ activities, including the identification and validation of food loss drivers and the use of drone technologies for detecting production losses and food waste. Twinning Regions’ representatives also learned about the latest developments in regional policies related to food loss monitoring, the functionalities of the FOLOU Sustainability Tool, the data collection process, and the FOLOU Food Losses EU-wide Repository. 

On the second day, FOLOU partners and Twinning Region representatives participated in a gleaning activity led by Espigoladors. During three hours of fieldwork, more than 80 kg of fully edible apples were rescued from becoming food losses and diverted to Espigoladors’ facility for redistribution. The FOLOU Twinning Region programme aims to engage other territories in Europe to raise awareness and promote action on the importance of quantifying and reducing food losses at the primary production stage.