Challenge Fitur Next

The FiturNext 2025 Challenge focuses on the sustainability of food management in tourism, and how the sector can contribute to improving it.

Food surplus is the waste of agricultural and food products that are still perfectly edible and suitable for human consumption and which, in the absence of alternative uses, end up being discarded as waste. This surplus is generated all over the world and at all stages of the food chain, which has led to it becoming a major global issue.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted every year. That is the equivalent of 1.3 billion tonnes, around 180,000 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower. In fact, it is estimated that 28% of the land used for agricultural production worldwide is used to produce food that will never be consumed. 

In Spain alone in 2020, the seventh largest surplus food producer in the EU, 1.364 billion food waste was discarded, an average of 31 kg per person.

If we talk about future projections, it is expected that by 2030 food waste will increase by 60%, resulting in a loss of more than 1.5 trillion dollars. 

The generation of surpluses that end up as waste generates an unsustainable triple impact globally:

• Environmental impact: this food waste is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions, which is an avoidable environmental cost. 
• Economic impact: annual global losses are estimated at around $940 billion.
• Ethical and social impact: more than 1 trillion tonnes of food is thrown away each year while 1/9th of the world's population is undernourished.

Moreover, food surpluses can be aggravated by tourism: lack of process optimisation, irresponsible consumption or inadequate food preservation are the main causes of surpluses in the industry.

For all these reasons, the FiturNext Observatory is launching the 2024 challenge in harmony with Sustainable Development Goals 12, 13, 2 and 6, in order to find good tourism practices that contribute to the sustainability of food management in the tourism sector.

The FiturNext 2025 challenge applications will be structured on the basis of the following categories of impact and contribution to the challenge:

• Destinations and other territories : Aimed at those territorial administrative entities that have oriented their efforts towards improving food management in the tourism sector. 
• Horeca and transport sector : Aimed at organisations of any kind in the hotel, catering, cafeteria and transport subsectors that have implemented measures to optimise food management. 
• Other agents in the food value chain : Aimed at all cross-cutting agents in the tourism food chain that promote good practices in food sustainability.

You can register your initiative by clicking on this link

The deadline will be open until 31 August 2024.

The projects that reach the final stage will participate in the activities that will take place at our FITUR 2025 stand and subsequent actions, and will benefit from the visibility provided by being part of the FiturNext community thanks to its impact on the media and the synergies created among its participants.