The European Commission unveiled this month the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) to make Europe cleaner and more competitive. This new plan aims to “transform the way products are made and empower consumers to make sustainable choices” according to Frans Timmermans, the Commission’s vice-president in charge of overseeing the European Green Deal.

Packaging will be one of the “Key products value chain” targeted by the plan. Building on the Commission’s objective that all packaging on the EU market has to be reusable or recyclable by 2030, the Commission is planning to reinforce the mandatory essential requirements for packaging and will focus on reducing (over)packaging and packaging waste.

Tighter waste and recycling laws are also central to the CEAP, with new targets due to be presented as part of a broader revision of EU waste rules. The Commission plans to enhance the implementation of the recently adopted requirements for extended producer responsibility schemes (EPR) and propose to harmonise separate waste collection systems. A new EU-wide target on food waste reduction is also mentioned as part of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy.

The European Snacks Association will closely monitor the implementation of this new plan and promote when needed the views of the sector. A number of accompanying documents to the action plan can be found on the Commission’s website here.

The ESA’s 2019 annual activity report is now available for download by clicking here

Building on the new format we developed last year, this report focuses primarily on the key milestones for the association in 2019, also covering briefly the most important issues dealt with in the different working groups.
Printed copies are of course available on demand to the secretariat.

We would like to thank you again for your support and involvement. We look forward to another year of fruitful collaboration to make our industry and your business succeed!

The World Bank published in February a comprehensive report titled “Obesity: Health and Economic Consequences of an Impeding Global Challenge” looking at the health and economic consequences of obesity.

The report identifies regulatory measures for the prevention of overweight and obesity, including strong fiscal measures, warning labels and FOP nutrition labelling, interventions in food systems, marketing and advertising restrictions and interventions “to build awareness of unhealthy ingredients used in food processing”. The report presents case studies of national programmes and policies implemented around the world.

The authors put forward the specific role of the institution and the tools at its disposal to encourage governments to adopt the recommended measures such as “results-based financing instruments as well as investment lending”. Additional resources (infographic, podcast, blog and press release) can be found here.

Google’s video platform YouTube has announced earlier this month that it will ban advertising of food and beverage around content aimed at children in a bid to demonstrate its commitment to protect children from marketing on its popular video platform.

The prohibition will apply globally, and to all food and beverage ads irrespective of their nutritional profile in and around Made for Kids (MFK) content on YouTube. It will apply to all paid-for ads (pre-rolls, mid-rolls, banners) appearing around content classified MFK.

Product placement and endorsements in user-generated videos are not covered by this specific measure.

FoodDrinkEurope has published its latest Data & Trends report highlighting key figures and providing insights on the food and drink industry’s structure and economic performance in Europe. The industry employs 4.72 million people in the EU with a turnover of €1.2 trillion and €236 billion in added value, which makes it the largest manufacturing industry in the EU.

The report also provides an outlook on markets: About 75% of EU food and drink exports are destined for the EU single market, which represents 91% of the total food and drink turnover. The EU is the largest exporter of food and drink products in the world.

This year’s edition also includes brand new data on digitalisation in industry, automation, bio economy, the latest figures on the EU-UK food and drink trade, and an overview of the industry's contribution towards achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

At the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA) high-level conference on 20 September in Brussels, ESA president Rolf Nilges, on behalf of European savoury snack makers, signed a declaration aimed at ensuring that 10 million tonnes of recycled plastics find their way into new products by 2025.

The declaration has been signed by almost 100 stakeholders in the plastics value chain who will work together to support the transition to a circular economy. The declaration sets out a number of objectives and voluntary actions to make further progress notably on product design for recycling, recycled plastics content and collection and sorting.

The CPA governance model is currently being finalised and the actual work is due to start by the end of 2019. The declaration remains open for signature by any interested stakeholders, including individual companies.