Food Circle

What is Food Circle?

The Food Circle project is a two-year research and engagement project supported by the Circular Economy Fund through the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.

Its primary purpose is to address the donation actions in Ireland’s First National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap (2023-2025), identifying and promoting best practice and potential policy interventions in food redistribution and food waste reduction in Ireland.

Woman with glasses and dark hair speaking at a podium with a microphone in a wood-paneled room.

A targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC (the WFD) was published in 2025.

The WFD includes binding national food waste reduction targets to be met by 31 December 2030:
10% reduction in food waste at the processing and manufacturing level; and 30% per capita reduction in food waste at retail and consumption stages (target applies to retail, food services, and households combined).

Food donation is specifically highlighted within the WFD as one means to help achieve the waste reduction targets.

Member States are required to take measures to ensure that economic operators having a significant role in the prevention and generation of food waste propose donation agreements to facilitate the donation of unsold food (at reasonable costs for the economic operators). Ireland is required to transpose the revised WFD by June 2027.

Thanks to the Food Circle project, FoodCloud has produced a suite of policy recommendations that can help Ireland meet its food waste reduction targets and deliver a practical, evidence-informed approach to surplus food redistribution, strengthening food security, building community capacity for surplus food redistribution, and responding to emerging legal requirements on food waste reduction.

Read FoodCloud’s executive summary and reports:

Executive Summary

‍

1. Policy levers for food redistribution2. Supporting a voluntary target for surplus food redistribution3. Building community sector capacity for surplus food redistribution4. Supporting the infrastructure of food redistribution

‍

5. Farm-level food loss in Ireland: causes and solutions

-
iet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Read the Reports? Have your say.

Person placing sliced cherry tomatoes and halved avocados on a cutting board above plates of salad with chickpeas, greens, and shredded vegetables.