Abstract
The objective of this systematic literature review was to compile and assess food losses and waste estimates, from developed countries, across the food supply chain. The methodology involved systematically identifying studies and extracting, compiling and analysing their estimates of food losses and waste. Of the 55 estimates extracted, from these studies, the most (43·6%) were from the consumption (average 114·3 (kg/capita)/year) part of the food supply chain. On average, total food losses and waste were 198·9 (kg/capita)/year. While this review revealed a high degree of variability of estimates and inconsistent trends for the independent variables: scope of food waste, geography and study methodologies; food waste generation, at the consumption part of the food supply chain, was significantly higher for North American compared with European estimates (p = 0·003); and significantly higher (p = 0·030) for indirect than direct estimates. Similarly, total food waste generation indirect estimates were significantly higher (p = 0·035) than directly measured estimates. To improve the accuracy and precision of food losses and waste estimates, additional research is required to develop and implement a bespoke, weight-based and statistically sound methodology for its direct measurement.
Highlights
World food production has increased substantially in the past century, as has calorie intake per capita (Nellemann et al, 2009)
Published with permission by the ICE under the CC-BY license yield the highest estimates; that there is considerable variability in the data; that North American estimates are generally higher that European ones; and that indirect measurements generally result in higher food losses and waste (FLW) estimates
Loss-Adjusted Food Availability (LAFA) does not identify where, along the food supply chain (FSC), FLW is created. These estimates function as a proxy of per capita consumption and FLW generation along the FSC
Summary
World food production has increased substantially in the past century, as has calorie intake per capita (Nellemann et al, 2009). Food insecurity persists: according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 795 million people are undernourished globally, including 15 million in developed regions (FAO et al, 2015). Its reduction presents opportunities to reduce its economic (e.g. wasting money), environmental (e.g. greenhouse gas (GHG) generation) and social (e.g. food security) impacts. To develop effective FLW reduction interventions and measure their impact, it is essential to have a more precise understanding of its generation. Since a variety of methods have been used to collect FLW data, precise estimates have been elusive. The objective of this systematic literature review is to compile and critically assess current annual per capita weight-based estimates of FLW along the various parts of the food supply chain (FSC) in developed countries
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