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Food Loss and Waste
Published in Anil Kumar Anal, Parmjit S. Panesar, Valorization of Agro-Industrial Byproducts, 2023
Sushil Koirala, Anjali Shrestha, Sarina Pradhan Thapa, Anil Kumar Anal
Food loss and waste means reducing the amount of food in successive phases of the food supply chain (FSC) primarily projected for consumption by humans. Food waste occurs due to many reasons; it might be in response to superfluous production volume, spoilage and contamination, logistic malfunction, the incompetent aesthetic value of the commodity, improper meal planning, over-purchasing, and misinformation (Ishangulyyev, Kim, and Lee, 2019). The quantities and types of food wasted vary between and within different phases of the FSC. About 54% of food loss and waste (FLW) has been accounted for during upstream processing and post-harvest handling, whereas 46% is known to be produced during processing, supply, and consumption (Kummu et al., 2012). The problem associated with FLW is first linked with environmental and biotic factors beyond human control and, second, to the food chain contributors' behaviour, including all the operations that concern food management at all stages of retailers and consumers (Cicatiello et al., 2020). FLW is recognized as crucial for the sustainable resolution of the worldwide waste challenge. On the one hand, there are growing concerns over the intensifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental, social, and economic effects connected with food waste. On the other hand, the burden on natural resources and global food security issues are also increasing. This raises questions regarding the quantities of wasted food in the global FSC that could have been channelled to provide food to hungry people (Papargyropoulou et al., 2014).
Food Loss and Waste in Processing and Distribution
Published in Christian Reynolds, Tammara Soma, Charlotte Spring, Jordon Lazell, Routledge Handbook of Food Waste, 2020
Martin Gooch, Abdel Samie Felfel
Reduction of food loss and waste is becoming an integral part of efforts to reduce costs along food supply chains to improve the efficiency of the chain by using resources more effectively (Provision Food Chain Centre, 2007; Gooch et al., 2010; Barclay, 2012; Schneider, 2013; Zokaei, 2014; WRAP, 2015; Provision Coalition, 2019). Food losses and waste represent unsold products and therefore reduced revenues and higher costs for businesses in the food supply chain. Additionally, when consumers purchase too much (or are served too much food), food wastage represents unnecessary expenditures.
Open crowd
Published in Fiona Allon, Ruth Barcan, Karma Eddison-Cogan, The Temporalities of Waste, 2020
In our commercial industrial food system, food loss and waste occur in all steps of the value chain, from production, handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution and retail to finally consumption. In general, “food loss and waste” is a term that refers to the phenomenon when things that are valued as food—“the edible parts of plants and animals that are produced or harvested for human consumption” (Lipinski et al. 2013, 1)—are not ultimately eaten. However, within the food industry, a further distinction is made, defining food loss as “food that spills, spoils, incurs an abnormal reduction in quality such as bruising or wilting, or otherwise gets lost before it reaches the consumer” (Lipinski et al. 2013, 1). Food waste, on the other hand, refers to “food that is of good quality and fit for human consumption but that does not get consumed because it is discarded—either before or after it spoils” (Lipinski et al. 2013, 1). In this conception, loss and waste are defined by intention, the former understood as the unintended result of agricultural processes or technical limitations, while the latter is the result of negligence or a conscious decision to throw food away. This particular ontology frames food waste as two distinct problems: a question of optimisation in the production cycle, and an issue of awareness on the consumption end. Within this understanding, food loss can be tackled by creating better infrastructure in supply chains, and on the other hand, improving consumer awareness and household management. A recent study found that up to 600 tonnes of food waste produced in the retail and consumer sector could be prevented, with a corresponding saving of up to $260 billion annually (Hegnsholt et al. 2018). While this may be the case, this separation between intentional and unintentional wasting does not account for the obsolescence of food loss generated as part of the normal production cycles of commercial food.
Improvement of an open sun drying system for dried banana product using solar tracking system: a case study in Thailand
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2022
Chaowanan Jamroen, Preecha Komkum, Punnapit Yoopum, Surachart Pinsakol, Krit Kerdnoan
The world’s population is expected to increase from 7.7 billion in 2019 to 9.7 billion in 2050. Moreover, the population could reach nearly 11 billion around 2100 (United Nations 2019). Therefore, food productivity will be vital to supply demand from the increase in population. Although food productivity has been improved using modernized technologies in response to the growing population (Jamroen et al. 2020a), food loss and waste exist in every part of the world. Reducing food loss and waste is thus considered as an important way to reduce production costs and increase the efficiency of the food system, improving food security and nutrition, and contributing toward environmental sustainability (Food and Agriculture Organization 2019b). Currently, agricultural food production is the primary factor of the worldwide economic drive, especially in developing countries. However, the spoilage of products inevitably increases after the harvest. Accordingly, to extend the shelf life of the products, solar drying has been established for food processing and preservation (Khadraoui et al. 2019; Samimi-Akhijahani and Arabhosseini 2018).
SMEs strategy and scale constraints impact on agri-food supply chain collaboration and firm performance
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2021
A. Zaridis, I. Vlachos, M. Bourlakis
Expectations from food supply chains have increased during the last decades (Porter and Reay 2016). Consumer needs are not limited to food safety and quality but, increasingly, include innovation, sustainability, competitive prices and value-for-money (Tell et al. 2016). Further, reducing food loss and waste across the supply chain has significant environmental, societal, and economic repercussions (Devin and Richards 2018). Increasing food supply chain efficiency requires significant changes in food production and delivery systems (Dania, Xing, and Amer 2018). However, across the globe, food supply chains are dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (Vandeplas, Minten, and Swinnen 2013). For example, the vast majority of the over 15 million EU holdings/enterprises in the food chain, including 300,000 food processors are small or medium sized (ESCIP 2016). SMEs have inherent constraints such as financial and operational constraints (Hessels and Parker 2013; Clegg 2018). Further, agri-SMEs are exposed to a number of uncertainties such as price volatility and asymmetric price transmission, market dynamism, regulatory pressures and ambiguities, particularly in international trade, regarding food standards (Rezitis and Tsionas 2019). At the other end, concentration in the food processing industry and retail sectors is much higher (56%) than in the agricultural sector, which creates power imbalance in favour of large enterprises over agri-SMEs (Hingley 2005).
Sustainable innovation in the dairy supply chain: enabling factors for intermodal transportation
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2020
Violetta Giada Cannas, Federica Ciccullo, Margherita Pero, Roberto Cigolini
As described in Cannas et al. (2018) and in Rossi et al. (2020), the new technology consists of a modular temperature-controlled transport unit based on phase-change refrigeration technology with no engines needed and which is able to ensure a constant temperature ranging from 0 °C to +10 °C for 7 days (on average). The transportation unit is one small-size module that can contain one load equal to one EUR-pallet with variable height (max 1.6 metres), a size well-suited to the size of a typical dairy transportation unit. Moreover, several modules (i.e. transportation units) can be combined together in a platform of 10 modules to be transported by rail and on road. In addition, this new technology is capable of preserving fresh and frozen food longer, decreasing possible food loss and waste. Figure 1 depicts the transport unit and the modular platform.