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Last week, German ministries and food industry representatives signed a basic agreement to reduce food waste. This agreement should form the basis for the implementation of the national strategy against food wastage, including the review and amendment of existing regulations and agreements. However, the signatories to the agreement agreed that food safety should be a priority in any case. The German Ministry of Agriculture also stated on 10/03/2020 that it had informed the European Commission about Germany's intention to introduce a NutriScore nutrition labelling scheme. Meanwhile, Germany is in favour of the voluntary use of NutriScore. The European Commission should comment on Germany's intention within the next six months, and legislation should enter into force at the end of this year.
More information is available here and here.

Catalonia (ES) has passed a new food law aimed at reducing food waste by 50% by 2030. Restaurants will be obliged to dispose of recyclable or reusable containers to be used when visitors ask for packaging of uneaten food. Non-compliant catering establishments could be fined up to EUR 150,000. Companies should also ensure that food residues that can no longer be consumed are available for industrial use (for example for biogas production). Furthermore, under the new law, grocery stores will have to support and motivate customers to buy food just before the expiration date.
More information is available here.

MEPs called on the Commission to take emergency measures to protect the agri-food sector from customs duties that the US decided to impose in October 2019. Customs duties should be between 10 and 25% and should enter into force on 18/03/2020. Customs duties apply to imports worth € 6.8 billion. The call was signed by more than 50 MEPs, referring to the CMO Regulation, which allows for the introduction of emergency measures to address specific problems in agricultural markets, and may last for up to one year. Planned negotiations with Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan to mitigate proposed duties have been cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19.
More information is available here.

The thematic network SKIN - Short supply chain knowledge and innovation network - has created a new interactive online brochure under the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. The booklet contains links to videos and other interesting resources, summarizes all the main information on technology, regulation, logistics, or skills, as well as information on Knowledge and Innovation Systems in Agriculture (AKIS).
New website with interactive brochure is available here.

European environmental organizations, including Greenpeace (45 organizations in total), have sent a letter to Stelle Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food, calling on the Commission to tighten up the rules on pesticide residues in imported food and to apply the same rules to imports as EU production . The letter from Greenpeace and other organizations is a response to the report of the Corporate Europe Observatory (available here) according to which the Commission tolerates, for example, imports of food with pesticide residues higher than the detectable limit, or pesticide residues banned in the EU.
More information is available here.