foodCIRCUS Transnational Workshop as a side event of IFW 2026
The workshop will be held in a hybrid format, allowing participants to join in person or online
Monday 8th June 2026 | 10:00–13:00 (incl. light lunch)
Location: NH Lingotto Congress Hotel, Torino, Italy
Organization: REPLOID Group AG and BOKU University
Join us for a workshop on food waste valorisation and circular solutions, with a special focus on restaurant and school systems. The session brings together experts from research, industry and policy to explore how food waste can be repurposed and valorised through approaches such as biogas, lactic acid and insect bioconversion.
Highlights include:
- Insights from the Central European INTERREG project foodCIRCUS project and real-world pilot cases
- Practical perspectives on different valorisation pathways
- Overview of the EU regulatory framework
- Presentation of international case studies on food waste bioconversion with insects (e.g. North America and China).
- Panel discussion on challenges, research gaps and policy needs
Speakers include: Aaron Hobbs (NACIA), Ruilong Zheng (Consultant), Wolfgang Gebauer & Gudrun Obersteiner (BOKU), Jana Vasickova (REPLOID), Emilia Den Boer (Wroclaw University of Technology).
The workshop aims to foster exchange and identify pathways towards safe and scalable circular use of food waste streams.
Participation is free of charge, registration required:
foodCIRCUS is an Interreg Central Europe project that addresses food waste in school canteens and kindergartens through prevention, awareness raising, optimisation, redistribution, and circular valorisation of unavoidable leftovers. The project brings together partners from several Central European countries to test pilot actions, generate evidence, and develop a shared strategy for reducing school food waste while exploring innovative uses such as insect feed, biogas, and bioplastics.