Minister Creed Announces Funding for Food Waste Reduction Projects

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D. has announced the projects that will receive funding this year from his Department, under the Rural Innovation and Development Fund, for initiatives aimed at reducing food waste generated by food businesses, retailer/wholesalers, or suppliers in rural areas.

Minister Creed, while making the announcement of the successful projects with associated funding of almost €300,000, said “Ireland generates over one million tonnes of waste annually. We have committed to reduce the amount of food we waste in accordance with a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (12.3) which calls on all nations to halve food waste and reduce food loss by 2030.  These projects will help address this goal and we must continue to develop initiatives to help address this issue.”

“The Food Waste Reduction projects are funded from my Departments Rural Innovation and Development Fund and so they will also serve to address that fund’s overall objective of energising the rural economy by encouraging innovative job creation and sustainable enterprise development”.

Funding has been made available to the following successful projects:

FOOD WASTE REDUCTION

• • Clean Technology Centre, Cork Institute of Technology (CTC-CIT) – Expansion and development of the Savour Food, Food Waste Reduction Programme. (€99,900)
  • Food Cloud – creation of a series of events in partnership with Irelands top food festivals to highlight the problem of food waste from farm to fork (€100,000)
  • ProfitWatch – Food Waste Aware – engagement with food businesses throughout Ireland to encourage using an onsite food waste reduction system with a view to reducing waste and thereby having a positive impact on their business financially and culturally (€99,720)