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Mr. EmilioGallego Zuazo (SecretaryGeneral of FEHR), Mr. AdrianCummins (CEOof Restaurant Association of Ireland), Mr. Christian de Barrin (CEO
of HOTREC), MEPBiljana Borzan, Mr Danny van Assche (CEO of HORECA Vlaanderen), Ms. MariaHeider (Director for EUAffairs for METROGroup),
Mr. Christian Reuter (Legal Advisor on food law, DEHOGA) and Mr. Patrick Alix (Secretary General of FEBA) on the margin of the MEP breakfast
on food waste.
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2016
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2017 HOTREC ANNUAL REPORT
During the past 12 months, HOTREC organised a number of high-level events aimed at promoting the hospitality
industry’s benefits to society towards European policy and decision-makers.
Policy breakfast in the European Parliament on the reduction of food waste
On 31 January 2017, HOTREC held an MEP breakfast in the European Parliament on the reduction of food waste
in the hospitality sector. The event was hosted by MEP Biljana Borzan, rapporteur in the European Parliament
on “Initiative on resource efficiency: reducing food waste, improving food safety”, and is to be seen in the wider
context of the U.N sustainable development goal of halving food waste by 2030 and of the 2017 U.N International
Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.
While recalling that the European hospitality industry is already a small food waster (e.g. the food service sector
generates only 12% of the overall food waste in Europe
1
, of which the hospitality industry represents only a
share, as the food service sector also includes party catering and contract catering), HOTREC presented on that
occasion the many activities developed by the hospitality industry to further reduce this low proportion of food
waste.
In particular, HOTREC unveiled its new brochure “European Hospitality industry guidelines to reduce food waste
and recommendations to manage food donations”. The guidelines are made of 8 essential pillars in business
management to help hospitality establishments reduce even further food waste through a set of concrete tips.
Besides, the recommendations on food donations, jointly established with FEBA (the European Federation of
Food Banks) shall guide both businesses and charity organisations willing to partner to help people in need.
During the event, some HOTREC Members as well as METRO also presented the best-practices activities they
developed to help hospitality businesses. For instance, HORECA Vlaanderen presented its “no food to waste”
campaign in Flanders which includes a detailed check-list to help chefs reducing their food waste, and to which
366 chefs already gave their support. DEHOGA also presented its own check-lists for German restaurants and
catering businesses developed with the help of Unilever, while FEHR developed a similar guide for Spanish
businesses. METRO also presented its own set of tools meant to facilitate the reduction of food waste in
restaurant and catering businesses.
The event gatheredmany participants fromDG Santé and DG Environment of the European Commission, from the
European Parliament as well as stakeholders active in the food chain, who discussed and praised the initiatives
and best-practices presented by HOTREC and its Members. This event therefore successfully demonstrated
that the hospitality industry is a responsible actor which already does what is necessary to minimise the low
proportion of food waste it produces.
“I commend HOTREC and
itsMembers for their efforts
in reducing food waste and
conserving resources”
Biljana Borzan, MEP, during the event of 31 January 2017
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See EU Fusions report “Food waste data set for EU-28”
CORE EVENTS