Public-private Collaboration as a Base Strategy for the Reduction of Food Losses and Waste: Comparative Analysis of the Draft Law and Resolution that Institutes Mechanisms to Combat Hunger in Panama and the EU and US Systems
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Abstract
The EU's 2015 Circular Economy Plan already declared the fight against food waste as one of its priority areas. Indeed, it is an objective, without a doubt, of undeniable importance and centrality for various climate objectives: deforestation, water footprint, CO2 footprint and, above all, for social justice. A decade later, the EU sets a binding target of reducing losses at source by 10% and food waste by 30% in the home and retail trade, restaurants, food services by 2030 through the drafting of a Directive to this effect.
In turn, different EU countries had already approved regulations on the reduction of food losses and waste in recent years, such as Law 1/2025 on the prevention of food losses and waste, which will have to be analysed in the light of the guidelines of the new Directive or the previous French and Italian laws. The United States also has a developed policy for this purpose that is more old and based on different assumptions. However, it is a common SDG, the common 12.3, so it is necessary that measures are adopted worldwide to comply with it. There are countries such as Panama, which also this past year, driven by its Food Bank, finally introduced bill 396 for the Prevention of Food Losses and Waste, already sanctioned by the Executive Branch on April 2, 2026, pending enactment, which shows significant progress in the construction of the national legal framework in this area. They have planted the first seed, but it is necessary to move forward and for this they can draw inspiration from the experiences of comparative law. The purpose of this article is to focus on this priority objective of the Circular Economy and to check the main lines on which the different regulations are based to help establish clear guidelines that can be of help in the case of Panama and other surrounding countries.