Food waste accounting methodologies: Challenges, opportunities, and further advancements

About one third of the food produced globally is wasted along the food chain, representing a burden for the environment and an inefficiency of the food system. Tackling food waste is a priority on the global political agenda to guarantee food security. Defining a methodology for food waste quantification is key to monitoring progress towards the achievement of reduction targets. This paper summarises the outcomes of a workshop on food waste accounting co-organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General on Health and Food Safety with the aim of stimulating harmonisation of methodologies, identifying challenges, opportunities, and further advancement for food waste accounting. The paper presents methodological aspects, e.g. system boundaries, reliability of data, accounting of water flows, to ensure better support to food waste policy design and interventions. It addresses all the actors of the food supply chain, governments, and research institutions. •Methodology for waste accounting is key for monitoring progress towards reduction targets.•Challenges, opportunities, and further advancements for food waste accounting methodologies are discussed.•The harmonisation of accounting approaches is one of the main challenge.•Existing tools are opportunities to strengthen the efficacy of food waste accounting.•Further advancements include the increased availability of data, especially on liquid waste.