GUSTOS brings European projects together to share solutions for preventing food waste in school canteens
27 Oct 2026The European webinar brought together 11 projects and organisations working on measurement, educational and gastronomic interventions and behavioural change to reduce food waste in school canteens.
The European project GUSTOS – Gastronomic and Educational Strategies to Optimize Food Waste Prevention in School Canteens held its first European webinar on 15 October 2026 “Preventing Food Waste in School Canteens: European Projects in Motion” focused on exchanging solutions to prevent and reduce food waste in school canteens.
The event brought together 84 participants from several European countries, representing projects and organisations working on food waste prevention from school canteens, catering companies, educational and research communities, food professionals and public authorities, among others.
A total of 12 speakers from European projects and organisations presented methodologies, interventions and practical experiences in four areas directly related to food waste prevention in school canteens (Programme)::
- Food waste measurement, addressing methodologies and tools to understand how much food waste is generated and better identify its causes.
- Educational interventions, focused on awareness raising, learning and the involvement of pupils and the wider school community.
- Gastronomic interventions, including examples related to recipe redesign, menu acceptance and portion adjustment.
- Knowledge transfer and behavioural change, analysing how project results can be transferred to other contexts and how changes in consumer behaviour can be encouraged.
The different presentations provided an opportunity to learn about tools and solutions implemented in different European contexts, as well as good practices, challenges and lessons to be learned that may support the implementation of new actions in other school canteens. At the end of the webinar, a discussion session also provided exchange between speakers and participants.
The webinar is part of GUSTOS’ knowledge-transfer and dissemination activities, aimed at ensuring that the methodologies, interventions and lessons generated within the project can be shared, compared and replicated in other school canteens.
Presentations
The presentations shared during the webinar are available below:
- GUSTOS approach on food waste – Edurne Clemente and Nagore Salegui (Ausolan)
- Food Waste Reduction in School Canteens: Findings from the MYWASTE-PLATE Project – Laura Rossi (National Institute of Health, Italy)
- WASTELESS – Digital Food Waste Measurement – Dejan Gradišar (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia)
- Educating to reduce waste: educational interventions from the SchoolFood4Change project – Paola Hernández (Mensa Cívica)
- LOWINFOOD: Food waste innovations in action in foodservice: what works, where and how – Clara Cicatiello (University of Tuscia)
- Combining interventions to reduce food waste in school canteens: results from the COMBINE project – Katerina Palascha (EUFIC)
- STOPMALBARATAMENT: From Measurement to Action: Engaging Children in Food Waste Reduction through School Canteen Audits – Barbara Atie (Fundesplai)
- FOODWISE: Co-Creation and Direct Participation Techniques for Targeted Food Waste Reduction in School Canteens – Alice Carradori (Qualità & Servizi)
- VET LOVES FOOD: Methodologies, and Tools to Combat Food Waste – Igor Ozamiz (EHSBI)
- From simulation to solution: the CHORIZO Visualizer to turn data into actionable insights – Filippo Pini (University of Bologna)
- FOOD CONNECT: Platform and stakeholder engagement for food waste prevention – Mariza Vryonidi (FOE Cyprus)
In addition, the full webinar recording is available here:
A report has been made with the main conclusions of the webinar
Upcoming events
In 2027, GUSTOS will continue to develop knowledge-transfer and dissemination activities aimed at supporting the implementation of effective solutions to prevent food waste in school canteens at regional, national and European level.
