Food waste accounting methodologies: Challenges, opportunities, and further advancementsShow others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: Global Food Security, ISSN 2211-9124, Vol. 20, p. 93-100Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
About one third of the food produced globally is wasted along the food chain, representing a burden for the environment and an inefficiency of the food system. Tackling food waste is a priority on the global political agenda to guarantee food security. Defining a methodology for food waste quantification is key to monitoring progress towards the achievement of reduction targets. This paper summarises the outcomes of a workshop on food waste accounting co-organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General on Health and Food Safety with the aim of stimulating harmonisation of methodologies, identifying challenges, opportunities, and further advancement for food waste accounting. The paper presents methodological aspects, e.g. system boundaries, reliability of data, accounting of water flows, to ensure better support to food waste policy design and interventions. It addresses all the actors of the food supply chain, governments, and research institutions. © 2019 The Authors
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. Vol. 20, p. 93-100
Keywords [en]
Accounting methodology, Food loss, Food waste, Policy support, Sustainable development goal 12.3, Systemic approach
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-37745DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2019.01.002Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85060529633OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-37745DiVA, id: diva2:1287542
Note
Funding details: Joint Research Centre, JRC, https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/projects-activities/jrc-biomass-assessment-study_en; Funding details: European Commission, EC; Funding details: https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/bioeconomy_en; Funding text 1: This publication is part of European Commission's Joint Research Centre contribution to the European Commission's Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy ( https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/bioeconomy_en ). The workshop “FW accounting: methodologies, challenges and opportunities” was organised in the context of the Institutional JRC Biomass Study (further details at https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/projects-activities/jrc-biomass-assessment-study_en ). The European Commission's Joint Research Centre would like to thank the workshop participants for their fruitful contributions to the discussion. The authors wish to thank Grainne Mulhern for her support in the editing of the paper.
2019-02-112019-02-112023-05-23Bibliographically approved