Background An estimated 89 million tonnes of food goes to waste in EU countries each year. Modelling suggests this could increase to over 120 million tonnes by 2020. Managing the food system in complex and growing capital cities such as London is a major challenge. London’s households throw away an estimated 900 000 tonnes of food each year, of which 540 000 tonnes is avoidable. This has the following adverse environmental, economic and societal impacts: Environmental impacts: methane from landfilling and transporting it;/li> Financial loss: householders buying but not consuming; Poverty: good food being thrown away rather than redistributed; Poor health: people consuming too much of the wrong types of food; and Societal costs: costs of collecting and processing food waste – over €60 million per annum in London; costs of treating people with obesity-related conditions etc. London’s municipal waste targets are as follows: To achieve zero municipal waste direct to landfill by 2025; To reduce the amount of household waste by 20%; To increase London’s capacity to reuse or repair municipal waste from approximately 6 000 tonnes a year in 2008 to 20 000 tonnes a year in 2015 and 30 000 tonnes a year in 2030; To recycle or compost at least 45% of municipal waste by 2015, 50% by 2020 and 60% by 2031; To cut London’s greenhouse gas emissions through the management of municipal waste; and To generate as much energy as practicable from London’s organic and non-recycled waste in a way that is no more polluting in carbon terms than the energy source it is replacing.Objectives The LIFE TRiFOCAL London project aims to pilot a holistic communications campaign to encourage sustainable food systems in cities. It specifically supports the implementation of the EU Roadmap for Resource-Efficiency which calls for "…incentives for healthier ... consumption of food and to halve the disposal of edible food waste in the EU by 2020." The project will also support the new circular economy strategy, which includes actions to prevent food waste. One key innovation is assimilating messaging on healthy diets and consumption as part of a food waste communications campaign. This component will address societal challenges linked to health and wellbeing supporting the EU 2020 health strategy ‘Together for health’. The campaign will encourage three food-centric behaviours: The prevention of food waste by changing planning, shopping, storage and meal preparation behaviour; The promotion of healthy and sustainable eating by changing purchasing and preparation practices; and The recycling of unavoidable food waste. As a result of the project, an interactive, multi-stakeholder food waste behavioural change 'Resource Bank' will be created so that activity can be replicated across other major EU cities. The project generally aims to contribute to the following socio-economic issues: The alleviation of food poverty through increased redistribution of food; and food waste prevention allowing consumers to save money; Increased food security and local purchasing, through encouragement of buying local and growing own produce; Cost savings for public authorities through improved health thanks to healthier eating, and less waste collected by Boroughs. Expected results: The project will run an innovative London-wide communications campaign that will engage with all 33 London Boroughs, 1 000 hospitality and food service outlets (including 10 000 of their customers and staff), 20 community groups and 24 schools to raise awareness and change consumer behaviour at local level, leading to: A 20% reduction in the per capita tonnage of avoidable food waste generated by Londoners, from around 63 kg per resident to around 49 kg per annum; £330 million (€393 million) savings in annual living costs for Londoners, or £37 (€48) per resident; Reductions in global CO2 equivalent emissions of 430 000 tonnes per annum; Global water savings of 70 million cubic metres; An increase of 5% in the amount of unavoidable food waste recycled by households across London; A 20% increase in the number of Londoners aware of key actions they need to take to eat more healthily and sustainably; and Five EU replication cities signed up at the start of the project and at least a further five signed up by the end of the project.It is estimated that by rolling out this package of work across the top 22 cities in Europe a reduction of over 1 million tonnes of food waste could be achieved within five years.