•We analysed different methods to characterise food waste at a country level.•Different methods show diverse results for food waste characterisation.•Some results provide inconsistencies when ...compared.•Conclusions on food waste characterisation need to be taken with care.
This study critiques available methods for the national-level, sector specific, characterisation of food waste. Such estimates are required to account for the environmental and socio-economic implications of food waste, and to identify the highest impact and most cost-effective solutions to reduce those negative outcomes associated with wasted food. Australian results are compared using three fundamentally different approaches taken from the literature, along with two variants implemented for this study. The results are extremely inconsistent, suggesting that our current quantitative knowledge on Australian food waste may not be sufficient for optimal prioritisation of mitigation options. While these ‘conventional’ methodologies may not be sufficient in isolation, their strengths are complementary and would ideally be integrated into a single analytical framework that incorporates the best available top-down and bottom-up datasets.
The control of the main environmental factors that influence the quality of perishable products is one of the main challenges of the food industry. Temperature is the main factor affecting quality, ...but other factors like relative humidity and gas concentrations (mainly C
H
, O
and CO
) also play an important role in maintaining the postharvest quality of horticultural products. For this reason, monitoring such environmental factors is a key procedure to assure quality throughout shelf life and evaluate losses. Therefore, in order to estimate the quality losses that a perishable product can suffer during storage and transportation, a real-time monitoring system has been developed. This system can be used in all post-harvest steps thanks to its Wi-Fi wireless communication architecture. Several laboratory trials were conducted, using lettuce as a model, to determine quality-rating scales during shelf life under different storage temperature conditions. As a result, a multiple non-linear regression (MNLR) model is proposed relating the temperature and the maximum shelf life. This proposed model would allow to predict the days the commodities will reduce their theoretical shelf-life when an improper temperature during storage or in-transit occurs. The system, developed as a sensor-based tool, has been tested during several land transportation trips around Europe.
Purpose. The purpose of our study is to assess the extent to which food losses and waste affect the level of deficit in the consumption of milk and meat products by the population of Ukraine, which ...will allow us to identify the regions of Ukraine for which measures and policies to reduce food losses and waste should be developed. Methodology / approach. The empirical research was conducted using primary and secondary data. Primary data were used to calculate food losses and waste according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) methodology. Secondary data were used for correlation and regression analysis. Correlation and regression analysis were conducted for each of the six types of products: meat and milk. Factorial features are food losses and waste per capita. The result feature of the correlation and regression analysis is the share of consumption deficit resulting from food losses and waste. The sample was formed based on data from 24 regions of Ukraine. Results. According to the results of the correlation and regression analysis, the assumption of the absence of a relationship is not confirmed; all factors are significant. It has been proven that food losses and waste of milk and meat are a significant factor in the formation of a deficit in the consumption of milk and meat by the population of Ukraine. It was determined that milk losses and waste have a somewhat higher impact on the deficit of product consumption than meat losses and waste. It was established that the share of the deficit in milk and meat consumption, which arises as a result of food losses and waste, is higher in those areas that traditionally specialise in the production of livestock products. The feasibility of developing and implementing differentiated measures to reduce the deficit of milk and meat consumption in certain regions is substantiated. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, the degree of impact of food losses and waste of milk and meat production on the deficit of consumption of these products by the population of Ukraine has been scientifically proven and quantified. Practical value / implications. The results of this empirical study are the basis for the development of state and regional programmes and the implementation of the necessary actions to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 12 (SDG 2, 12) in Ukraine.
Reducing food wastage is one of the challenges in achieving global food security and transforming current food systems. Since human nutrition is closely dependent on cereal production, research was ...undertaken aimed at understanding the food losses in the baking and confectionery industry (BCI) in Poland, in particular at determining the volume, reasons and ways of reducing losses, identifying possibly all of the reasons for losses in BCI using the Ishikawa 5M + 1E diagram and determining the level of significance and probability of risk of food losses in the analysed sector. Two research methods were used. Quantitative data were collected using the mass balance method from five businesses that served as case studies. Qualitative data were collected through individual in-depth interviews with 17 industry experts. The companies’ average daily losses ranged from 0.8 to 6.4 tons, representing 9.7 to 14.4% of production volume, including 10.4–13.4% of bread losses and 6.8–24.4% of fresh pastry losses. The highest losses were generated by transport departments and these were exclusively retail returns. Following the Ishikawa concept, 31 primary and 94 secondary reasons for food losses were identified. Using the probability of loss risk, a toolkit for loss prevention and mitigation across all departments within businesses (raw materials magazine, production section, final product magazine and final product transport) and a set of horizontal tools were identified, including specialised training for employees and activities in several areas, e.g., technical status and production technology, organisation and planning, logistics and sales and cooperation with retail. This study, conducted in Poland, offers valuable results for developing programmes and strategies to prevent and manage food losses in BCI. Many of the solutions proposed in both toolkits can bring economic benefits without involving additional high costs.
•Methodological gaps are discussed in order to improve how FLW are assessed and reported.•A methodological framework to assess and report FLW is proposed.•A case study is used to illustrate how the ...methodological framework should be applied.•Results show that unsold tomatoes are frequently used for different purposes.
Despite growing concerns about food losses and waste (FLW), research that focuses on FLW, especially along food supply chains (FSC), frequently uses unsatisfactory methodology and fails to provide clear results. The article reviews the existing methodological gaps with the aim of proposing a methodological framework for assessing and reporting FLW. The methodological framework was applied to a case study conducted on the “traditional” tomato supply chain in Cali (Colombia) from a waste management perspective. Interviews and surveys were carried out with farmers, traders (wholesalers, middlemen) and corner stores. The quantitative levels of FLW are presented. Empirical results show that unsold tomatoes are frequently used for different purposes. The quantity or rate of FLW alone may not be sufficient to justify the research interest and guide policy intervention: data may conceal more important issues, such as questions of food safety and health risks or economic losses. From a methodological perspective, it would be interesting to test the applicability of the framework to other aspects of FLW (e.g. qualitative FLW) and to wider case studies (e.g. households).
The environmental concern and development issues regarding packaging has for 20 years to a high extent been on packaging when it has become waste. To reduce the environmental impact from the whole ...food packaging system it is also important to develop the packaging’s ability to reduce food waste. In some cases it may be necessary to increase the environmental impact of packaging in order to reduce food waste. In this paper, the environmental impact of packaging and food losses and the balance between the two has been examined for five different food items. The results show that packaging’s that reduce food waste can be an important tool to reduce the total environmental impact, even if there is an increase in impact from the packaging itself. This is especially true for food items where the environmental impact of the food is high relative the packaging, for example cheese, and for food items with high losses, for example bread. It is important to analyse the risk of increasing food losses when packaging design changes, for example, when the aim is less packaging material, which is the main intention of the packaging and packaging waste directive of the European Union.
•Disagreement remains over proper terminology on food loss and how to measure it.•We test one traditional and three new measurement methodologies for five staples in six countries.•We account for ...losses in quantity and quality from pre-harvest to product distribution.•Aggregated self-reported measures consistently underestimate actual food losses.•Policies need to be targeted where losses occur in the value chain.
The essential first steps of addressing the problem of food loss are measuring the loss, identifying where in the food system it occurs, and developing effective policies to mitigate it along the value chain. Food loss has been defined in many ways, and disagreement remains over proper terminology and methodology to measure it. In addition, none of the current classifications includes pre-harvest losses, such as crops lost to pests and diseases before harvest. Consequently, figures on food loss are highly inconsistent. The precise causes of food loss remain undetected, and success stories of reducing food loss are rare. We address this measurement gap by developing and testing three new measurement methodologies, as well as one traditional methodology. Our proposed methods account for losses from pre-harvest to product distribution and include both quantity losses and quality deterioration. We apply the instrument to producers, middlemen, and processors in five staple food value chains in six developing countries. Comparative results suggest that losses are highest at the producer level and most product deterioration occurs before harvest. Aggregated self-reported measures, which have been frequently used in the literature, consistently underestimate actual food losses.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that about 1.3 billion tons of food produced for human consumption was lost or wasted globally. Thus, the reduction of the ...current food loss and waste along the agrifood chain is becoming a priority, both for optimization of resources and reduction waste generation costs. For this purpose, the first step is to quantify the food wastage generation to be able to identify corrective measures. However, in spite of the considerable efforts already undertaken to establish common methodologies to measure the food wastage at different geographical scales, there are still some gaps and inconsistencies.
In this regard, the information gathering is labour-intensive because of the different actors involved. The creation of new methodologies and tools capable of automatically identifying these agents would be of great value so as to subsequently apply the more appropriates quantification methodologies.
This work aims at providing a new methodology to facilitate this process thanks to the previous identification and classification of the potential food wastage generators. As a result, it provides baseline information for one of the earliest steps of the food wastage quantification process, which is the establishment of the scope of the food wastage inventory.
The baseline data needed is taken from the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE), particularly from the most disaggregated level called “classes”. This information has been combined with data from the trading income tax at municipal scale thanks to the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the common codes for NACE classes, generating a visual tool for the localization of points with potential of food-wastage generation and their weight of each economic activity over the agrifood chain.
The proposed methodology has been implemented for the real case of the municipality of Zamudio (Spain) and it has allowed the identification of the different entities linked with economic activities that are potential generators of food wastage, the weight of each activity over the entire agrifood chain, and the geographical location of these entities in the territory. Furthermore, this methodology was used to compare the nature and number of these activities in another municipality (Karrantza, Spain) and it has also been applied to the entire region of the Basque Country (Spain).
•Systematic methodologies are key to assess the impacts of food waste generation.•Digital tools for geo-localization of food waste facilitate the decision making.•Baseline information for food waste reduction is related to economic activities.•Standardisation of methods for quantification helps reduce gaps and inconsistencies.
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