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      Food waste accounting along global and European food supply chains: State of the art and outlook

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          Highlights

          • Current studies are based on different methodological approaches and data sources.

          • A robust food waste accounting methodology is needed for food waste reduction.

          • Food waste ranges: 194 and 389 kg/p/y globally and 158 and 290 kg/p/y in EU.

          • Waste management and food security objectives lead to different accounting needs.

          • Distinction in edible and inedible is crucial for food waste prevention and food security.

          Abstract

          Contributing to environmental pollution and resources depletion, food waste represents a considerable inefficiency of the global food system. Within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, countries committed to halve per-capita food waste generated at retail and consumer levels and to decrease food waste along the food supply chain by 2030. Reliable and detailed information on food waste is of utmost importance for the actors of the food supply chain, organizations and governments willing to implement and monitor effective reduction strategies. The present paper is a review of existing studies on food waste generation at the global and European scales and aims primarily at describing and comparing the approaches adopted, and secondarily at analysing their potential in supporting food waste related European interventions and policies. Ten studies were selected among relevant scientific papers and grey literature and their underlying quantification methodologies were systematically analysed. Methodological elements discussed in the paper include type of waste streams captured by estimations, distinction between edible and inedible food waste along the agro-food supply chain, reported units of measure, overall inefficiencies of the food system, and uncertainty of data. Current estimations of food loss and waste generation range between 194–389 kg per person per year at the global scale, and between 158–298 kg per person per year at the European scale. However, further efforts are needed to improve their level of detail and reliability and to foster their support to food loss and waste-related strategies.

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          Most cited references17

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          Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050

          Food waste in the global food supply chain is reviewed in relation to the prospects for feeding a population of nine billion by 2050. Different definitions of food waste with respect to the complexities of food supply chains (FSCs)are discussed. An international literature review found a dearth of data on food waste and estimates varied widely; those for post-harvest losses of grain in developing countries might be overestimated. As much of the post-harvest loss data for developing countries was collected over 30 years ago, current global losses cannot be quantified. A significant gap exists in the understanding of the food waste implications of the rapid development of ‘BRIC’ economies. The limited data suggest that losses are much higher at the immediate post-harvest stages in developing countries and higher for perishable foods across industrialized and developing economies alike. For affluent economies, post-consumer food waste accounts for the greatest overall losses. To supplement the fragmentary picture and to gain a forward view, interviews were conducted with international FSC experts. The analyses highlighted the scale of the problem, the scope for improved system efficiencies and the challenges of affecting behavioural change to reduce post-consumer waste in affluent populations.
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            Food waste generation and industrial uses: A review.

            Food waste is made up of materials intended for human consumption that are subsequently discharged, lost, degraded or contaminated. The problem of food waste is currently on an increase, involving all sectors of waste management from collection to disposal; the identifying of sustainable solutions extends to all contributors to the food supply chains, agricultural and industrial sectors, as well as retailers and final consumers. A series of solutions may be implemented in the appropriate management of food waste, and prioritised in a similar way to waste management hierarchy. The most sought-after solutions are represented by avoidance and donation of edible fractions to social services. Food waste is also employed in industrial processes for the production of biofuels or biopolymers. Further steps foresee the recovery of nutrients and fixation of carbon by composting. Final and less desirable options are incineration and landfilling. A considerable amount of research has been carried out on food waste with a view to the recovery of energy or related products. The present review aims to provide an overview of current debate on food waste definitions, generation and reduction strategies, and conversion technologies emerging from the biorefinery concept.
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              Missing Food, Missing Data? A Critical Review of Global Food Losses and Food Waste Data.

              Food losses and food waste (FLW) have become a global concern in recent years and emerge as a priority in the global and national political agenda (e.g., with Target 12.3 in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). A good understanding of the availability and quality of global FLW data is a prerequisite for tracking progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts, and exploring mitigation strategies for FLW. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past years; however, significant challenges remain, such as data inconsistency and a narrow temporal, geographical, and food supply chain coverage. In this paper, we examined 202 publications which reported FLW data for 84 countries and 52 individual years from 1933 to 2014. We found that most existing publications are conducted for a few industrialized countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the United States), and over half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties in the existing global FLW database. Despite these uncertainties, existing data indicate that per-capita food waste in the household increases with an increase of per-capita GDP. We believe that more consistent, in-depth, and primary-data-based studies, especially for emerging economies, are badly needed to better inform relevant policy on FLW reduction and environmental impacts mitigation.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Waste Manag
                Waste Manag
                Waste Management (New York, N.y.)
                Pergamon Press
                0956-053X
                1879-2456
                1 September 2018
                September 2018
                : 79
                : 120-131
                Affiliations
                European Commission-Joint Research Centre, Directorate D-Sustainable Resources, Bioeconomy Unit, Via Enrico Fermi 2749, I-21027 Ispra, VA, Italy
                Author notes
                [* ]Corresponding author. serenella.sala@ 123456ec.europa.eu
                Article
                S0956-053X(18)30455-0
                10.1016/j.wasman.2018.07.032
                6202438
                30343738
                ac819f99-ac91-424a-b424-15a09e5e0486
                © 2018 The Author(s)

                This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 20 February 2018
                : 13 July 2018
                : 16 July 2018
                Categories
                Article

                Environmental management, Policy & Planning
                food loss,food waste,estimation,sustainable development goal 12,circular economy,waste framework directive

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