A care continuum: Food waste challenge in Hong Kong and its narration in action

Managing food waste is key to tackling climate change

Food waste mitigation is a critical means of addressing current and future economic, social and environmental concerns, to ensure enough food to feed the world’s growing population in a sustainable way. U.S. federal, state, and local governments have recognized the importance of food waste issues. A variety of policies associated with food waste management, food reduction, and food donation are set to allow and incentivize individuals, organizations and businesses to reduce their food waste. This study focuses on investigating current food waste prevention and diversion activities using data drawn from two U.S. waste reduction recognition programs, the U.S. Food Waste Challenge (FWC) and the EPA Food Recovery Challenge (FRC). Participants involved in these two programs follow the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy to prevent and divert their food waste. Descriptive statistics, crosstabs, and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that a majority of participants were in the food store category, and that Region 9 had the highest participation rate; the top three food waste prevention and diversion activities were food donation, source reduction, and collaboration/partnership. Different strategies used in different categories by FRC awardees were identified. The results of this study can be used to identify changes and strategies needed in practices, programs, and policies. The outcomes of the study provide a clear picture regarding what has been done and what needs to be done more in the future.

The food waste hierarchy as a framework for the management of food surplus and food waste

Chapter 9 - Food waste management in Thailand for sustainable development

The (FWE)2 nexus: Bridging food, food waste, water, energy, and ecosystems for circular systems and sustainable development

Perspectives on food waste management: Prevention and social innovations

The management and prevention of food losses and waste in low- and middle-income countries: A mini-review in the Africa region.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global food waste patterns through unanticipated shifts in composition and quantities. This review explores the impacts of COVID-19 on food waste generation and management approaches in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region during the recovery phase. This paper comprehensively explores food loss and waste in the NENA region. It presents a detailed analysis of pandemic-induced changes in household food waste behaviors, analyses the integration of circular economy principles in recovery strategies and policy implications, and outlines potential avenues for future research in this critical area. The key findings are threefold: First, this study reaffirms that food waste is a critical challenge in NENA, contributing to food insecurity, water scarcity, and environmental issues. Second, the pandemic catalyzed a dichotomy in consumer behaviors—panic buying initially increased waste, while hardship measures later encouraged sustainable waste reduction practices like meal planning and leftover use. Third, adopting a circular economy approach holds potential, yet its implementation remains limited in terms of curbing food waste and promoting sustainability in NENA. Overall, while the pandemic accentuated the urgency of tackling food waste, it also stimulated innovative policy thinking and strategic planning for building more resilient food systems. This paper concludes that leveraging pandemic-driven sustainability mindsets while addressing systemic drivers of waste will be key to mitigating food waste and its impacts moving forward. This paper offers timely insights into the evolving food waste management landscape in NENA, underscoring the need for integrated policies to navigate post-pandemic recovery effectively.

Food waste management is an increasingly critical global issue, driven by the need to promote environmental sustainability, conserve resources, and mitigate global hunger. This study provides a theoretical analysis of the historical evolution of food waste management, examining its definition and international significance. Additionally, it critically evaluates the necessity of adopting sustainable approaches. The methodology involves a comprehensive literature review covering 2013 to 2023, utilizing keywords related to food waste, sustainability, and the circular economy. The databases consulted include Science Direct and MDPI. The findings indicate a shift from individual to institutional sources of food waste, highlighting the need for alternative management strategies. The environmental analysis underscores the negative impacts of conventional practices, while solutions such as food rescue, fermentation, and anaerobic digestion emerge as promising alternatives. Understanding consumer behavior is key, with smart labels introduced as potential tools to reduce food waste. The article also discusses the challenges and limitations of current food waste management practices, reinforcing the necessity of sustainable treatment methods. The study concludes by outlining future research directions, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer behavior, investigating the potential of smart labels, and addressing existing knowledge gaps to foster a more sustainable and responsible approach to food consumption and waste management.

Reducing our waste size

Over recent years, the problem of food waste has been faced all around the world. Various reasons contribute to this, most of which are highly avoidable in nature. Ideally, it is the responsibility of every individual/institution to make every effort possible towards preventing food waste, but this study focussed only on the role of higher educational institutions. The overall aim of this project was to assess the practicalities of developing and implementing a food and packaging waste prevention programme in a university setting using the University of Salford, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Manchester, Newcastle University and Small World Cafe (Oxford Road, Manchester) foodservices as case studies. The research involved carrying out face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the cooks, chefs, cafeteria managers and estate managers from all the participating institutions to collect qualitative data on the factors associated with food waste and the current food waste management practices at their facilities. The responses were thoroughly analysed to highlight the good practises and areas for improvement with regards to their food waste prevention and management practises. These findings included best practices and ideas for preventing pre- and post-consumer food waste along with suitable options for managing food waste in a university setting. These findings were then used to recommend a food waste prevention and management program.KeywordsUOS: University of SalfordMMU: Manchester metropolitan universityUOM: University Of ManchesterNU: Newcastle UniversitySWC: Small world cafe

Life cycle costing of food waste: A review of methodological approaches

Food waste has been identified as one of the major factors that constitute numerous anthropogenic activities, especially in developing countries. There is a growing problem with food waste that affects every part of the waste management system, from collection to disposal; finding long-term solutions necessitates involving all participants in the food supply chain, from farmers and manufacturers to distributors and consumers. In addition to food waste management, maintaining food sustainability and security globally is crucial so that every individual, household, and nation can always get food. “End hunger, achieve food security and enhanced nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” are among the main challenges of global sustainable development (SDG) goal 2. Therefore, sustainable food waste management technology is needed. Recent attention has been focused on global food loss and waste. One-third of food produced for human use is wasted every year. Source reduction (i.e., limiting food losses and waste) and contemporary treatment technologies appear to be the most promising strategy for converting food waste into safe, nutritious, value-added feed products and achieving sustainability. Food waste is also employed in industrial processes for the production of biofuels or biopolymers. Biofuels mitigate the detrimental effects of fossil fuels. Identifying crop-producing zones, bioenergy cultivars, and management practices will enhance the natural environment and sustainable biochemical process. Traditional food waste reduction strategies are ineffective in lowering GHG emissions and food waste treatment. The main contribution of this study is an inventory of the theoretical and practical methods of prevention and minimization of food waste and losses. It identifies the trade-offs for food safety, sustainability, and security. Moreover, it investigates the impact of COVID-19 on food waste behavior.

Hospitals produce and waste large amounts of food. When disposed in landfill it creates greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the decomposition process. While various food waste management strategies exist that divert hospital food waste to an alternative end of life pathway to landfill, it is not clear which can decrease GHG emissions the most. This study aimed to (a) compare the differences in GHG emissions associated with hospital foodservice food waste before and after adopting a food waste management strategy, and (b) identify which waste management strategy can prevent the most GHGs in 1 year. A secondary analysis of data from a systematic review reporting on food and food-related waste diversion strategies in hospital foodservice was conducted. The online "ReFED Impact Calculator" was used to calculate GHG emissions from food waste in the original scenario (e.g., landfill), and the alternative scenario after a food waste management strategy that reused, recycled or recovered resources was implemented. The net change of GHGs was calculated, and the GHGs emissions avoided in paired samples and between food waste management scenarios was analyzed statistically. Fifty-five food waste management strategies (surplus food donation, feeding animals, anaerobic digestion or industrial uses, and composting) were eligible for analysis and were grouped into eight scenarios. The median GHGs generated decreased after adopting the alternative strategy in all scenarios. There was a statistically significant median reduction in GHGs when changing from landfill to donations (-11.54, p < 0.001), landfill to industrial uses (-25.92, p < 0.001), and landfill to composting (-15.24, p < 0.001). Percentage change in GHGs generated in these 3 scenarios demonstrated a significant difference (p < 0.001), with landfill to donations displaying the greatest reduction in GHGs (-92.02%), followed by composting (-8.69%) and industrial uses (-7.75%). Various food waste diversion strategies can handle types and volumes of hospital food waste, yet each strategy displays a reduction in GHG emissions compared to a lower prioritized strategy. Donating waste shows the greatest reduction in GHG emissions and if food waste cannot be avoided, it may be the preferred end of life pathway for food waste.

In this paper, a literature review about Food and Loss Waste Management in Horeca Supply Chain is developed. Some trends and characteristics of that research line are presented. Three research questions are proposed: 1) What journals and authors have published papers Food and Loss Waste Management in Horeca Supply Chain? 2) Which are the methodological characteristics of the papers on Food and Loss Waste Management in Horeca Supply Chain?and 3) What knowledge areas have been analysed? A descriptive analysis is made to identify the relevant journals and authors and the methodological characteristics (type of study, analytical techniques and sources of information). Finally, knowledge areas and the-ories are described. The general literature on supply chain in hospitality about food and loss waste is quite extensive and interdisciplinary. However, specifically on Horeca sector, it is rather scarce. The results confirm the need for further literature on the Horeca sector and its Supply Chain, due to its implications for food waste. The interest is mainly due to the large social and practical implications that can be derived in the extension of the research, moving towards the implementation of sustainable practices involving the reduction of food waste and loss.