TrueFoodS

Background

European food systems are fragmented. Regulations differ from country to country, making it hard to coordinate action on food waste, sustainability, and social equity. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and marginalised communities, including women-led businesses, young farmers, and migrants, are particularly disadvantaged: they often lack the resources, knowledge, and support needed to adopt sustainable practices.

At the same time, the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy and Common Agricultural Policy have set ambitious goals for sustainability, but post-harvest systems remain an underexplored gap. TrueFoodS directly addresses this gap by combining legal analysis, circular economy innovation, capacity building, and resilience governance in one integrated approach.

Main project activites

• Mapping legal and policy gaps: We compare how eight EU countries regulate post-harvest food systems, identify what is missing, and propose practical legal and policy improvements.
• Embedding circular economy principles: Through lifecycle analysis and co-creation with local actors, we design strategies that reduce food waste, recover resources, and cut greenhouse gas emissions in post-harvest stages.
• Supporting SMEs and marginalised communities: We deliver training programmes, co-creation workshops, and a transnational mentorship programme specifically designed for small businesses, women-led enterprises, youth, and other underrepresented groups.
• Building adaptive governance: We assess vulnerabilities in post-harvest systems and co-develop governance frameworks that help territories anticipate, absorb, and recover from economic, environmental, and social shocks.
• Developing inclusive business models: Together with local communities and policymakers, we co-create and test business models that integrate sustainability and social equity, with a special focus on women-led and community-based organisations.
• Engaging stakeholders across Europe: Through workshops, seminars, podcasts, and an open-access digital platform, we connect researchers, policymakers, civil society, and citizens around shared solutions for sustainable food systems.
• Producing open-access tools and policy briefs: All project outputs: including policy toolkits, training manuals, governance roadmaps, and scientific publications, are freely available and designed for replication across EU regions.

Expected impact

TrueFoodS aims to deliver measurable change across four dimensions.

Environmentally, the project works towards a reduction of at least 20% in food waste and greenhouse gas emissions in pilot areas, by embedding circular economy practices and biodiversity-friendly approaches.

Socially, TrueFoodS strengthens equity and resilience by empowering marginalised groups, including women, youth, and migrants, and promoting their active participation in sustainable food governance.

Economically, we improve operational efficiency and profitability for SMEs by co-developing innovative, circular business models that make sustainability financially viable.

At policy level, TrueFoodS contributes to a more unified EU legal framework for post-harvest food systems, making regulations more coherent, more equitable, and better aligned with the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy.