On 9 and 10 May 2019 the REFRESH conference took place in the Disseny Hub Barcelona. It brought together 150 participants from all across Europe, China, Australia and the US to present and discuss innovative ideas for food waste reduction and valorisation options across the whole supply chain. The Conference Documentation is available for download at the REFRESH website.

In her presentation on reducing consumer food waste through policy interventions [2] [pdf, 1.4 MB, English], Stephanie Wunder, Coordinator Food Systems at Ecologic Institute, and lead communications partner of the REFRESH project emphasized the need to monitor policy interventions and illustrated that findings so far suggest that social norm campaigns are likely to be more effective compared to simple information and awareness campaigns in order to make consumer change their food waste behaviour.

The programme of the main day, 10 May 2019, used innovative participatory methods such as a "doggy bag contest" [3], a "chopping disco", arts and design, and hands-on activities to achieve maximum impact. Preceding the conference, on 9 May 2019, a selection of field trips and events was offered, featuring food waste innovators from business and civil society in the Barcelona area. The organization of the conference was led by the Ecologic Institute communication and events team.

REFRESH is an EU research project taking action against food waste. 26 partners from 12 European countries and China work towards the project's goal to contribute towards Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 of halving per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level and reducing food losses along production and supply chains, reducing waste management costs, and maximizing the value from un-avoidable food waste and packaging materials. The REFRESH project ends in August 2019.