According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), about a third of food produced is wasted throughout the food system, from farm to fork. At European level, it represents 129 million of tons each year, 23,6% of which is food-processing residues generated by the food industry (wastewater from dairy production, slaughterhouse waste, grape, seeds, etc.).

Yet, these wastes still have value; they contain compounds including key nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. While some treatment processes such as landfilling and incineration don't allow to keep these compounds and can cause severe damages to the environment (pollution, GHG emission, etc.), other pathways exist to recover the potential of food waste. Among possible valorisation pathways, recyling into bio-fertilizers is a powerful way to use food wastes' compounds of interest and re-introduce them in soils which are currently lacking such elements.

The Waste4Soil research project has been set up to improve knowledge and capacities to increase the re-use of food waste from food industries. With its 28 partners, Waste4Soil aims to develop recycling pathways and thus contributing to sustainable and resilient food systems.

To ensure that the solutions developed within Waste4Soil are in line with society's expectations and needs, the project organises many events and activities to collect the opinions of food system actors, including citizens, as final consumers of the food chain. In its first year, the Waste4Soil partners have defined priorities and actions to guide the research and development to be done in the project. The following survey aims to collect your opinion on these priorities and actions, to enrich them with your point of view and ensure Waste4Soil meets your challenges.

The following survey is a 5 min questionnaire. Feel free to come back to us if you have any questions or remarks to share, we will be more than happy to come back to you!