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Food Loss and Waste: Quantification, Impacts and Potential for Sustainable Managemen
University College Dublin.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Built Environment, System Transition and Service Innovation.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5745-5960
RISE - Research Institutes of Sweden (2017-2019).
2024 (English)Report (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

According to the UN Environment Program, approximately 1.052 billion tonnes of food are wasted annually, equivalent to about one third of all food produced for consumption (1). Food waste is an issue that poses societal, economic, and environmental impacts. Worldwide, efforts and initiatives are being developed and implemented to reduce food waste. There is a specific Sustainable Development Goal relating to food waste, UN SDG 12.3; “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses” (2).Food Loss and Waste (FLW) occurs at each stage of the supply chain, including primary production, processing, at retailers, within the food service industry, and in households. Food loss refers to a decrease in the mass or quality of food before it reaches the consumer. Food waste typically refers to food that humans did not ultimately consume and that is discarded.It is crucial to understand where food is wasted and how much is wasted along the supply chain to devise interventions to reduce wastage and quantify baselines and progress towards SDG 12.3. Major sources of food loss in the supply chain include; harvest losses, storage losses, processing losses and distribution losses. Further, the generation of food waste is closely tied to the efficiency of the supply chain. Waste occurs for several reasons, including; procurement issues, limited market access for small farmers, quality standards and penalties and market system changes. The food system is a major contributor to environmental impacts, including producing significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Food production requires extensive resources such as land, fertiliser, water etc. As food is wasted along the supply chain, it results in environmental impacts as all upstream activities and resources used in production are wasted. Furthermore, FLW causes water pollution and nitrogen loss. The environmental impacts of different waste management options for municipal food waste, includingavoidance, composting, anaerobic digestion (AD) and incineration have been considered using Life cycle assessment (LCA). An avoidance strategy for wasted food showed the best environmental performance, while AD resulted in the lowest environmental impact for unavoidable food residues and minimal food waste. Current treatment methods are suboptimal, including landfilling, incineration, composting and anaerobic digestion, each of which has environmental impacts. Food waste contains valuable materials, such ascarbohydrates, lipids and amino acids, and it is a promising feedstock for producing valueadded chemicals and fuels. It is important to characterise food waste to identify optimal valorisation routes, extracting higher value from food waste while reducing impacts.The consumption stage is the final stage in the food supply chain where individuals or households purchase, prepare, and consume the food products. In 2019, 17% of the total food available to consumers was wasted. The dynamics impacting consumer attitudes and behaviours regarding food waste are a complex mix of socio-economic, social, psychological, situational and demographic factors. Campaigns which focus on social norms and behaviours of others and educational campaigns aimed at improving consumers’ knowledge and skills in cooking and food storage have been recommended to tackle food waste. In addition to food waste generated from food which ends up in a bin, waste from food packaging and water scarcity also amplify the overall environmental, social and economic impacts of food waste.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEA BIOENERGY, 2024. , p. 27
National Category
Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-79088ISBN: 979-12-80907-44-8 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-79088DiVA, id: diva2:2011355
Available from: 2025-11-04 Created: 2025-11-04 Last updated: 2025-11-13Bibliographically approved

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https://www.ieabioenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Task36_-Food-Waste-Report-Final.pdf

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Edo Giménez, Mar

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