As a result of the initial work of the Slovakian demo, the main problems identified were: overproduction, low bread prices and the distribution of surplus bread. One way to prevent and reduce the waste is through behavioural change of consumers that can bring about a transformational change throughout the whole bread value chain backwards.

The main "hot spots" identified were activities taking place in households, retail and HORECA sector. Due to the absence of official statistical data the preliminary estimates were made according to which production contributes by 5%, HORECA by 15%, retail by 30% and households by 50% to the waste in the bread value chain. Actions to reduce the waste focused largely around citizen science activities which included research activities with households, development of a zero waste (bread) cookbook, a campaign for supermarket customers, e-learning material for schools and an alliance of supermarkets for sharing the best practices. A communication plan was developed with the aim to raise the awareness of the public on food waste issues (workshops, webinars, presentations, events, conferences, videos, topical articles, blogs and news releases). A webpage in Slovak was developed for communication, information and research purposes: www.jedloniejeodpad.sk. Its domain translates into "food is not the waste".

The Danish Pilot is centred on changing the diet towards the planetary health diet by introducing alternative protein sources to partly replace the Danish meat intake, while increasing the fish intake and move towards a more plant-based diet. The aim to design and test nutritional and low footprint plates in the buffet of JTK, hence replacing especial rea meet with less environmental damaging food items.

Food loss and waste prevention opportunities lies partly in the value chain from upstream supplier to JTK, while the main opportunities are located at the downstream to JTK; i.e. at the buffet (retail and service sectors) and customer (post-consumer) stage of the FSC. Focus of the Danish pilot is to test the social readiness level for climate friendly diets, which includes not only changing the diet, but also to reduce the amount of leftovers in the cantinas.

To this end, the Danish pilot actors have put effort into cuttings of meat and fish that reduces the amount of edible post-consumer food waste. Innovation lies in the cuttings of high-quality pieces, while using the assorted cutting for minced products (hybrid as well as classical mat and fish products) to reduce the pre-customer edible food waste. Awareness raising campaigns of low footprint nutritional servings is the key citizen’s science activity (WP2) of the Danish pilot, and the effects of the awareness raising will be monitored in test trials before and after introducing opportunities for informed choices for the customers in the canteen.

The different Spanish partners taking part in the project are building the Spanish Pilot where different actions and circular strategies are implemented in order to improve the current situation about the Food Losses and Food Waste generation in the value chain of prepared salads. Before the implementation of the project, several actions have been addressed previously by all partners aiming to monitor and reduce the FW and FW in the different industrial and commercial processes involved in this value chain.

Though the situation has improved in the recent years, partner by partner, there is still a lack of a deeper coordination amongst members of the value chain and of the common use of digital information and social actions addressing the still existing FL and FW generation points. The FOODRUS project considers, based on the existing experience, to define new circular strategies involving existing and new stakeholders and creating tools based on collaboration and shared decision-making processes.

From the seed to the consumer waste management processes, different actions are implemented in the pilot, involving technological and social activities, that are expected to drive to a more valuable vegetal resources use, prioritising the food generation and other industrial processing for nutrients value extraction before composting what cannot be otherwise managed. In the FOODRUS project the environmental, social and economic impact of the new solutions are evaluated, under a Life Cycle Analysis approach, aiming to have a clear idea of how sustainability increases when implementing new collaborative and circular strategies, even in highly industrialised value chain as the prepared salads offered by large food distributors.

FOODRUS applies several co-creative approaches to ensure the involvement of all stakeholder groups and citizens in the reduction of food waste and loss as well as to foster local awareness and the uptake of more inclusive circular food strategies.

This approach is also applied for the creation of the FOODRUS educational materials that will ensure the integration of a comprehensive knowledgebase, best practices, and the tools and solutions developed in FOODRUS to empower stakeholders and facilitate the reduction of food losses along the agri-food value chain through participatory processes. The learning materials will be available through an e-learning platform to widen and diversify the means through which FOODRUS interacts with its target groups and builds their capacities.

Different co-creation tools were applied to collectively decide on the educational materials’ scope and structure. After narrowing down the FOODRUS solutions to be included at the platform, working groups were formed for each chosen topic. The working groups participated in a co-creation workshop where all solutions were presented and interactive tools such as a Miro Board was used by the participants to be able to actively engage and provide real-time feedback about the scope of the learning materials. In the long-term, the working groups of each solution will be contributing to the co-creation living documents to provide the necessary input on results and closely follow the development of the learning materials.

This approach ensures that the scope of the educational materials is tailored to the adequate user groups and their needs as well as fosters their empowerment to adopt more sustainable methods to reduce their food waste and loss.

Many of the challenges in food supply chains require shared solutions between two or more stakeholders with probably different or conflicting priorities. Building shared solutions requires a willingness to give up a part of oneself, one's time, information or decisions in order to achieve a common benefit. To this end, the FOODRUS project has successfully carried out a process of co-design of joint solutions between supply chains of fourth range products (Spain), meat and fish (Denmark) and bread (Slovakia), with the common goal of reducing food waste (FWL).

The objective of a co-creation process is to (i) detect, share and understand the needs and expectations of each stakeholder on a common goal; (ii) define the functions of a solution as a consensual middle ground; (iii) detect the role of stakeholders in the design, development, deployment and use of a solution; and (iv) define realistic outcomes of the solution and the way to validate it. The co-creation process is divided into four phases:

• The co-creation manager sets out a common solution and its expected outcomes, presenting it to stakeholders in an appropriate format and language.

• The co-creation manager leads face-to-face meetings in an appropriate climate and language, guides the discussion on the views of all stakeholders involved and provokes a shared listening.

• The co-creation manager collects all feedback received and incorporates it into descriptive documents in an appropriate format and language, and shares it with all stakeholders for feedback on the scope of the solution and their role in it.

• The co-creation manager holds multi-stakeholder meetings and iterates on the proposed solution, shaping it until consensus is reached