Wasted Food, Wasted Resources? A Critical Review of Environmental Impact Analysis of Food Loss and Waste Generation and Treatment.

Food loss and waste (FLW) comes with significant environmental impacts and thus prevents a sustainable food system transition. Here we conducted a systematic review of 174 screened studies that assessed the environmental impacts of FLW generation and treatment. We found that the embodied impacts of FLW along the supply chain and impacts from FLW treatment received equal attention, but few studies have included both. The reviewed studies show narrow geographical (mostly conducted in industrialized countries) and food supply chain (mostly focused on the consumption stage) coverage. Life cycle analysis (LCA), material flow analysis (MFA), or their combination are the most commonly used to quantify FLW related environmental impacts. More method standardization, integration, and innovation and better FLW data with regional and stage resolution from a first-hand source are badly needed. Among the various proposed mitigation strategies covering technology, economy, behavior, and policy aspects, process optimization and waste management options are the most discussed. Our review calls for a more holistic environmental impact assessment of FLW generation and treatment and analysis of the trade-offs among different environmental impact categories and between supply chain stages, which would better inform relevant policy on effective environmental impact mitigation strategies toward sustainable food systems.

Rethinking food loss and waste to promote sustainable resource use and climate change mitigation in agri-food systems: A review.

The sustainable agri-food system is an important sector recognized for promoting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals on food security, resource conservation and climate change mitigation. However, the increasing food loss and waste (FLW) along the supply chains has continued to hinder these goals. This study evaluates the trend of FLW research from 1975 to 2022 and how it promotes the achievement of resource and environmental sustainability in agri-food systems. The salient research themes and hotspots that are of interest to researchers were identified. Bibliometric and network analyses were carried out on scholarly research articles from the Scopus database using bibliometrix and VOSviewer. Furthermore, the content analysis was conducted on the selected highly influential articles containing relevant data to understand the role of FLW in promoting sustainable agri-food systems. The results showed disaggregate and unbalanced research distribution on the impacts of FLW among the countries, with China and the United States having the highest contributions. The identified major research themes relating to sustainable agri-food systems are food waste and sustainable systems, food waste management and food waste impact assessment. Moreover, the circular economy was found to be a relatively new approach being explored in agri-food systems to promote FLW reduction and ensure sustainability of resource use. This study highlights the critical role of the impact of FLW in addressing the grand challenge of food security, resource use efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Potential Energy and Environmental Footprint Savings from Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Europe: A Scenario-Based Multiregional Input-Output Analysis.

Food loss and waste (FLW) contribute significantly to the global food system's economic and environmental burdens, including substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resource depletion, and waste management challenges. In alignment with the European Commission's sustainability objectives and U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, this study explores the potential energy and environmental footprint savings achievable by halving FLW in Europe by 2030. Using a multiregional input-output model, we estimated the total global energy and environmental footprint savings across all stages of the food supply chain, considering industry-specific FLW rates and proportion weights. The findings reveal substantial environmental savings across Europe, with aggregate savings potentially reaching 51 Mt CO2e (0.09 t CO2e/p), 4,620 Mm3 (8 m3/p) of blue water, 106,446 km2 (179 m2/p) of cropland, 55,523 km2 (93 m2/p) of grassland, and 0.47 EJ (0.54 TJ/p) of energy. The greatest potential for savings was found in Western Europe, specifically in France, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. However, countries with a lower per capita GDP, such as Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania, also demonstrate significant per capita savings potential, indicating that wealth does not necessarily correlate with higher environmental savings. Agricultural production emerged as the stage with the highest footprint reduction potential for GHG and resource footprints across Europe, while the foodservice and institutional stages offer the greatest energy-saving potential. Geographical disparities underscore the need for region-specific policies. These results challenge the wealth-sustainability correlation and advocate for adaptable policies that transcend national wealth and accommodate regional disparities, underlining the pivotal roles of the agricultural production and consumption stages in footprint savings.

Multi-faceted CRISPR-Cas9 strategy to reduce plant based food loss and waste for sustainable bio-economy - A review.

Currently, international development requires innovative solutions to address imminent challenges like climate change, unsustainable food system, food waste, energy crisis, and environmental degradation. All the same, addressing these concerns with conventional technologies is time-consuming, causes harmful environmental impacts, and is not cost-effective. Thus, biotechnological tools become imperative for enhancing food and energy resilience through eco-friendly bio-based products by valorisation of plant and food waste to meet the goals of circular bioeconomy in conjunction with Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs). Genome editing can be accomplished using a revolutionary DNA modification tool, CRISPR-Cas9, through its uncomplicated guided mechanism, with great efficiency in various organisms targeting different traits. This review's main objective is to examine how the CRISPR-Cas system, which has positive features, could improve the bioeconomy by reducing food loss and waste with all-inclusive food supply chain both at on-farm and off-farm level; utilising food loss and waste by genome edited microorganisms through food valorisation; efficient microbial conversion of low-cost substrates as biofuel; valorisation of agro-industrial wastes; mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through forestry plantation crops; and protecting the ecosystem and environment. Finally, the ethical implications and regulatory issues that are related to CRISPR-Cas edited products in the international markets have also been taken into consideration.

A novel breathable package system to improve the fresh fig (Ficus carica L. 'Dottato') shelf life.

BACKGROUND: The postharvest management of fresh figs is a susceptible phase that could impair the quality standards. Given the high perishability, their marketing is limited to around the production areas using open punnets and when marketed non-locally the use of modified-atmosphere packaging enables their quality maintenance up to 7-14 days, depending upon the cultivar, storage temperature, and packaging system. We show the results of the effectiveness of an innovative packaging system endowed with a breathable device (Blow Device®, BD) for fresh fig storage. BD was evaluated in comparison with a sealed (S) and a macro-perforated film-based tray (MF), at 2 and 8 °C. RESULTS: The lowest rot decay incidence was observed in S and BD (5-20% after 21 days). S significantly mitigated rot and physical-mechanical decay rate compared with BD and MF. However, S led to anoxia, with relevant carbon dioxide (CO2 ) content (30-40%), tray volume increasing, and the highest titratable acidity values. The exploitation of BD led to 10-15% oxygen (O2 ) and 5-10% CO2 , along with storage. After 14 days, the figs packed with BD had a negligible mass loss (0.2%) and excellent marketing quality parameters at both temperatures tested. CONCLUSION: Exploiting an open or sealed container for extend the fresh fig' storage is not appropriate due to the severe effect of O2 or CO2 accumulation, respectively. BD enables the maintenance of high quality standards for up to 21 days at 2 °C, suggesting it could represent a profitable and sustainable solution to prevent decay after picking and reduce food losses along with wider marketability. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Land footprint and GHG emissions from global food loss.

BACKGROUND: Efficient land use represents a global challenge in the context of high levels of food loss (FL) and waste (FLW) and increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global agricultural activities. This study aimed to estimate the land footprint (LF) associated with FL worldwide. It also estimated the GHG emissions from crop residues and their burning, and their relationship with food loss for the main crops worldwide. The study analyzed data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) regarding land use, FL, and global GHG emissions from crop residues. RESULTS: The findings suggest that the average LF associated with FL worldwide is about 69 million ha per year, and the main food items responsible for most of the LF associated with FL are maize, wheat, and rice. The annual average emissions derived from burning crop residues of FL are 48.8 kilotons year-1 of CH4 and 1.26 kilotons year-1 of N2 O, and the emission of N2 O derived from crop residues of FL is about 24.1 kilotons year-1 , considering the three crops. CONCLUSION: Food loss implies high levels of LF and GHG emissions, reinforcing the need for proper public and private initiatives worldwide to reduce FL and waste (FLW). Organizations such as the FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) should incorporate indicators regarding FLW reduction to evaluate and monitor countries' performance. An international agreement also needs to be addressed to engage the world's nations in the reduction of FLW levels. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Determinants of reduction of food loss and waste in Indian agri-food supply chains for ensuring food security: A multi-stakeholder perspective.

With a rising population and increasing concern for food security, food loss and waste (FLW) has become a critical challenge to global sustainability. This paper, drawing on multi-stakeholder theory, aims to empirically identify the key determinants influencing the reduction of FLW in Indian agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) for ensuring food security. A structured questionnaire was used to collect responses from the various stakeholders of the AFSC and then the exploratory factor analysis technique was used to summarize the items into underlying determinants of reduction of FLW in Indian AFSC for ensuring food security. The results of this study reveal that (1) government support, (2) supply chain partnerships, (3) technological support, (4) consumer attitude and (5) top management commitment are the key determinants in the given context. All the stakeholders of AFSC must be aware of these key determinants affecting the reduction of FLW. They must work collaboratively to make a difference by preventing and managing FLW as it is everyone's responsibility to work towards food security.

Quantification of food loss and waste and its percentage estimation along the food supply chain in Korea.

Recent changes and food crisis at the international level have raised the awareness of food security in Korea; however, a problem that seems more urgent than the crisis is the lack of a national strategy for food loss and waste (FLW) in Korea. Moreover, where and to what extent food waste is generated in the food supply chain (FSC) is unknown. This study aimed to quantify food waste through material flow analysis and estimate the percentage of loss and waste at each stage of the FSC. The results revealed that 34.1% of the total supply of fruits and vegetables, meat and cereals was lost and wasted in Korea in 2015. Given that the proportion of edible parts in the food supplied for human consumption usually reaches 94.9%, a considerable amount of the food must have been discarded even though they are mostly edible. Furthermore, 47.6% of the total losses and wastes occurred at the upstream stages in the FSC, which include the agricultural production and processing stages, and 52.4% occurred at the downstream stages, which included the consumption stage, that is, distribution and household stages. In particular, more fruit and vegetable FLW were generated in the upstream stages of the FSC, whereas more meat and cereal loss and waste were generated in the downstream stages. The efficiency of policy implementation can be enhanced if food waste reduction strategies involve focusing more on areas with high losses.

Green extraction techniques from fruit and vegetable waste to obtain bioactive compounds-A review.

Food wastes imply significant greenhouse gas emissions, that increase the challenge of climate change and impact food security. According to FAO (2019), one of the main food wastes come from fruit and vegetables, representing 0.5 billion tons per year, of the 1.3 billion tons of total waste. The wastes obtained from fruit and vegetables have plenty of valuable components, known as bioactive compounds, with many properties that impact positively in human health. Some bioactive compounds hold antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties and they have the capacity of modulating metabolic processes. Currently, the use of fruit and vegetable waste is studied to obtain bioactive compounds, through non-conventional techniques, also known as green extraction techniques. These extraction techniques report higher yields, reduce the use of solvents, employ less extraction time, and improve the efficiency of the process for obtaining bioactive compounds. Once extracted, these compounds can be used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, or food industry, the last one being focused on improving food quality.

Potential impact of the adoption of food loss reduction technologies in Indonesia.

This study tried to assess the impact of the food loss reduction on Indonesia's economy and environment. The simulation utilises the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, which simulates the effect of food loss technologies adoption in food crops and livestock sectors. The simulation results indicate that the food loss reduction potentially has a positive impact economically and environmentally. From an economic perspective, applying technology to reduce food loss is estimated to increase Indonesia's GDP by 0.37% (around 88 trillion IDR) by 2030 compared to the BAU level. This economic improvement is mostly driven by the increase in household consumption, which can be increased by around 0.47% by 2030. This result follows that around 40% of household incomes in Indonesia are spent on food expenditure. Food loss reduction holds an important key to increasing food availability and household consumption of foods. Our simulation also indicated some positive effects of food loss reduction on the environment. By reducing the food loss, around 14.19 Mt CO2eq of GHG can also be reduced by 2030, while the cropland needed for food crop cultivation can also be reduced by 3.37% by 2030. Finally, this result highlights the importance of food loss reduction for Indonesia's economy and environment. It is recommended that the government pay serious attention to applying food loss reduction technologies to all food crops in the country.

A systematic review of food loss and waste in China: Quantity, impacts and mediators.

Although food loss and waste (FL&W) is high on China's national policy agenda, there is still little scientific information published about how much FL&W exists in China, what its impacts are, and what needs to be done to reduce it. Furthermore, what is known about FL&W across the various hotspots of China's food supply chain is not accessible in one place due to the tendency of scholars to focus on one part of the food chain depending on their disciplinary backgrounds, thereby making it difficult to obtain a 'comprehensive whole supply chain perspective'. Thus, this review provides an interdisciplinary collation of what is already known about FL&W in China. A systematic review of both English and Chinese databases followed PRISMA guidelines further complemented with a qualitative content analysis process uncovered 57 articles. The view revealed confounding factors such as an inconsistency of the definitions and calculation methods used to measure FL&W, and research gaps such as a lack of focus on the behavioral factors pertaining to waste, and the limited range of social innovations studied to reduce it. Thus, this review will help in the development of research agendas designed to advance efforts in this field.

Sustainable food cold chain logistics: From microenvironmental monitoring to global impact.

Food cold chain logistics (FCCL) is a systematic engineering process involving the use of a low-temperature environment to maintain the quality and safety of perishable food and reduce food loss and waste (FLW). From a mechanism perspective, FCCL must balance resource costs for a required level of food quality and safety with the costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the context of global warming, the sustainability trade-off between FLW and environmental impact has recently become an important topic in research on efficient, green FCCL. This is mainly reflected in technological innovation, management optimization, and policy responses. With a focus on three levels (micro, meso, macro), this review analyzes current research areas and the gaps and challenges of FCCL in microenvironmental monitoring, life cycle assessment (LCA), and global impact. Future trends pertaining to FCCL in technology, management, and industry and sustainable development are also summarized. Future trends involving sustainable FCCL must be intelligent, systematic, and low carbon. Industry empowerment through next-generation information technologies (e.g., IoT, AI, big data, blockchain) will promote the multidimensional perception, real-time information transmission, and sustainable control of microenvironmental monitoring, as well as support LCA management transformation from fragmentation to system integration. From a macro level, due to the serious global loss of perishable food, the FCCL scale demand is growing greatly, causing a huge environmental burden. Global cooperation, low-carbon consensus, and appropriate policies will become the basis for promoting sustainable FCCL development.

The opportunity cost of animal based diets exceeds all food losses.

Food loss is widely recognized as undermining food security and environmental sustainability. However, consumption of resource-intensive food items instead of more efficient, equally nutritious alternatives can also be considered as an effective food loss. Here we define and quantify these opportunity food losses as the food loss associated with consuming resource-intensive animal-based items instead of plant-based alternatives which are nutritionally comparable, e.g., in terms of protein content. We consider replacements that minimize cropland use for each of the main US animal-based food categories. We find that although the characteristic conventional retail-to-consumer food losses are ≈30% for plant and animal products, the opportunity food losses of beef, pork, dairy, poultry, and eggs are 96%, 90%, 75%, 50%, and 40%, respectively. This arises because plant-based replacement diets can produce 20-fold and twofold more nutritionally similar food per cropland than beef and eggs, the most and least resource-intensive animal categories, respectively. Although conventional and opportunity food losses are both targets for improvement, the high opportunity food losses highlight the large potential savings beyond conventionally defined food losses. Concurrently replacing all animal-based items in the US diet with plant-based alternatives will add enough food to feed, in full, 350 million additional people, well above the expected benefits of eliminating all supply chain food waste. These results highlight the importance of dietary shifts to improving food availability and security.

Country-level assessment of agrifood waste and enabling environment for sustainable utilisation for bioenergy in Nigeria.

It is essential to plug inefficiencies due to agrifood losses and wastes, which pose a significant threat to the sustainable supply of nutritional agrifood commodities/products. Country-specific evaluations of the extent of agrifood losses/wastes, including the pathways and impacts on net agrifood production, are crucial to inform interventions, research, policies and investments. This kind of knowledge is scarce in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, many of which are food insecure. This paper presents an estimation of and the bioenergy potential for agrifood loss and waste (AFW) - the edible and inedible residual biogenic fractions of crops and animal commodities/products - in Nigeria. Our findings reveal that Nigeria generates 183.3 ± 8.9MT of AFW per annum. About 27% of the average annual total domestic supply of edible agrifood commodities/products is lost before reaching markets/consumers. The intrinsic bioenergy potential of the inedible AFW fraction generated annually in Nigeria is estimated to be 1,816.8 ± 117.3PJ; this is sufficient to meet 2030's bioenergy targets and replace a third of its total (grid, off-grid and self-generation) supply targets. However, Nigeria lacks regulatory, policy and institutional frameworks specific to AFW management. This study recommends a sustainable approach to managing AFW, addressing the interlinked challenges of bioenergy production, public health and environmental sustainability. Besides addressing knowledge gaps in the Nigerian agrifood sector, the information generated in this study is well-timed to inform decision-making and policy formulation on decentralised AFW-based bioenergy interventions to achieve energy supply targets in the country by 2030 and beyond. This study is also strategic to guide future research/interventions that align with AFW utilisation/clean energy generation in SSA.

Modeling the key factors influencing the reduction of food loss and waste in fresh produce supply chains.

The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive framework by identifying and analyzing the key factors influencing the reduction of food loss and waste (FLW) in fresh produce supply chains (FPSCs) in developing countries, specifically India. This empirical study has identified eight influencing factors, representing the given context, from the literature (using content analysis) under the purview of management theories (namely, stakeholder theory, capabilities-based theory, and critical success factors theory) as well as data collected through semi-structured interviews from a group of selected experts. Further, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) technique and Matriced' Impacts Croise's Multiplication Appliquée an un Classement (MICMAC) analysis are used as an integrated method to analyze the identified factors. Regulatory bodies and food policy along with market infrastructure are the most significant factors and have a high tendency to influence the reduction of FLW in FPSCs; therefore, require utmost consideration. The findings of this study are expected to enable managers and policy makers to uncover and understand the key factors. The insights from the findings will help in formulating policies and making strategic decisions regarding the reduction of FLW in FPSCs which will help in attaining sustainable development goals target on FLW.

Reducing food loss and waste: Five challenges for policy and research.

Despite broad agreement in policy circles on the need to reduce food loss and waste (FLW), considerable gaps in information still exist. This paper identifies policy-relevant information gaps, summarizes recent research that tries to fill these gaps and identifies five challenges for researchers, policymakers and practitioners in reducing FLW. The five challenges identified are: (i) measuring and monitoring FLW, (ii) assessing benefits and costs of FLW reduction and the tradeoffs involved, (iii) designing FLW-related policies and interventions under limited information, (iv) understanding how interactions between stages along food value chain and across countries affect outcomes of FLW reduction efforts, (v) preparing for income transitions and the shifting relative importance of losses and waste as economies develop.

Consumers' willingness to pay for reprocessed fried chicken: A way of reducing uneaten food.

Substantial food loss and waste occur worldwide; approximately one third of produced food is lost or wasted annually, which worsens problems such as starvation and environmental degradation. This study examines the possibility of selling reprocessed meat products made from raw meat near its sell-by date, using Japanese fried chicken as an example. If reprocessed products are accepted by consumers, this will significantly contribute to reducing food waste in grocery stores. Because reprocessing does not require a reduction in current meat consumption, selling reprocessed foods is a more feasible and realistic way to reduce food waste compared to other initiatives, such as "Meat Free Monday." We use a choice experiment to elicit consumer preference for reprocessed fried chicken. Our results show that the willingness to pay for reprocessed fried chicken is above 90% of that of regular chicken, which implies a high feasibility of selling such products.

Review: Food loss and waste in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The research, development practitioner, and donor community has begun to focus on food loss and waste - often referred to as post-harvest losses (PHL) - in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article reviews the current state of the literature on PHL mitigation. First, we identify explicitly the varied objectives underlying efforts to reduce PHL levels. Second, we summarize the estimated magnitudes of losses, evaluate the methodologies used to generate those estimates, and explore the dearth of thoughtful assessment around "optimal" PHL levels. Third, we synthesize and critique the impact evaluation literature around on-farm and off-farm interventions expected to deliver PHL reduction. Fourth, we suggest a suite of other approaches to advancing these same objectives, some of which may prove more cost-effective. Finally, we conclude with a summary of main points.

Consideration of food wastage along the supply chain in lifecycle assessments: A mini-review based on the case of tomatoes.

In recent years, increased light has been shed on the large amounts of food wasted along the food supply chain (FSC). As lifecycle assessments (LCAs) are commonly used for estimations of environmental impacts from food production, it is relevant to investigate and discuss how such wastage is reflected in foodstuff LCAs. The objective of the present paper is to review a larger set of LCAs of foodstuff in order to (1) investigate if and how wastage along the FSC is addressed and (2) explore the importance of including wastage accumulated along the FSC in terms of environmental impacts. Twenty-eight LCA case studies and two review papers, focusing on tomatoes, were reviewed and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions chosen as indicator for the second objective. Only one third of the studies consider wastage at some part of the supply chain, in many cases in an inconsistent manner, and only in nine cases were GHG emissions from wastage included in overall systems GHG emissions. In these, wastage accounts for between 2 and 33% of total contribution to climate change. Omitting wastage when conducting LCA of foodstuff could result in underestimations of environmental impacts. Occurrence of wastage along all phases of the supply chain should be acknowledged in order to estimate environmental benefits from prevention and to identify areas where strategies with the aim of reducing wastage could be most efficient.

Research Note: Reducing food loss in the manufacturing process of chickens by reconditioning dropped raw poultry carcasses with peroxyacetic acid and sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) solution.

Food waste and food loss has been a growing concern in the manufacturing industry with a gap between identifying the problem and implementing a solution. The manufacturing process of chicken is largely automated by conveyor belts and machines in which initial application of either peroxyacetic acid (PAA) or sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) solution is utilized to reduce the microbial load and prevent food borne illnesses on the chicken products as they are processed and packaged for distribution. However, during this automated process whole chickens can drop from the manufacturing line and become contaminated leading to the disposal and waste of the product. A solution to reduce food waste was to analyze a reconditioning procedure within the manufacturing process. The study evaluated the aerobic microbial growth on salvaged marinated deli raw whole chickens without giblets (WOGs) from conveyor belt loss reconditioned in either PAA or sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) solution to undropped chicken WOGs. Chicken rinsate and segmented samples were collected from each parameter and tested for microbial growth using Petrifilm aerobic plate count (APC) plates and converting results into log colony forming units (CFU). A difference (P < 0.05) was observed with the reconditioning of the WOGs in PAA (0.71 log10 CFU/mL) compared to the control (1.45 ± 0.26 log10 CFU/mL), for rinses. Of the segmented samples, the trussing strings displayed a significant decrease in APC counts for both chlorine (2.30 ± 0.49 log10 CFU/g) and PAA (2.3 ± 0.49 log10 CFU/g) reconditioning compared to the control (2.72 ± 0.39 log10 CFU/g). Reconditioning of salvaged deli chicken WOGs in chlorine or PAA is comparable to or better than the conventional process for the reduction of APC, it is an effective strategy to reintroduce dropped marinated deli chicken WOGs to the manufacturing line and can reduce food waste at a manufacturing level.