Implementation of Action Plan against Food Waste

On October 14, 2025, the first cross-sector interim report was published. The results show that initial progress is visible — particularly in the retail sector and among pioneering companies in the food service industry. Promising projects are also emerging in processing and wholesale. However, the greatest challenges lie in achieving broad impact: the reduction achieved so far amounts to only around 5% since 2017 — significantly less than the 25% targeted for 2025.

To reach the goal of halving food losses by 2030, the following steps are now required:

• a significantly broader participation of companies and industry sectors,
• the further expansion of monitoring,
• effective awareness-raising measures among households, and
• clear incentive mechanisms and, where necessary, regulatory frameworks.

Without binding measures or economically attractive incentives, achieving the targets is highly unlikly.

The project demonstrates that robust monitoring is feasible—and essential for making progress measurable, identifying areas for action, and developing effective measures to reduce food losses in a targeted manner.

Implementation of Action Plan against Food Waste

Globally, around 30% of all food produced is lost along the value chain. Also in Switzerland food losses occur across all sectors — through crop losses, rejects in processing, unsold products in retail, leftovers in food service, and waste in households. A 2019 study estimated the distribution of these losses as follows: 20% in agriculture, 35% in processing, 10% in retail, 7% in food service, and 28% in households (Beretta & Hellweg, 2019).

In April 2022, the Federal Council adopted a national action plan against food waste. The goal is to halve avoidable food losses by 2030 — representing a potential reduction of about 11% of today’s diet-related environmental impact. A central element of this plan is the cross-sector agreement concluded by the federal government on May 12, 2022, with companies and associations from the food sector. This agreement defines reduction targets and establishes common implementation mechanisms.

The aim of the project is to build a robust, cross-sector monitoring system that systematically records the progress made by participating companies. The first project phase (2022–2023) focused on developing and testing suitable data collection methods and indicators, as well as preparing sector-specific guidelines. Since 2023, the focus has shifted to data collection, analysis, and reporting.