An analytical model to characterize consumption and wastage of fresh fruit and vegetables in households

Abstract

Food Loss and Waste (FLW) is a major problem for humanity, with a third of all food grown for human consumption being wasted. While FLW happens at every stage of the food supply chain, in developed economies, 40% of the wastage happens in households (FAO 2011). The extant literature identifies several factors that drive wastage in households, but scalable interventions to reduce this wastage remain elusive. We contend that the idiosyncratic nature of households’ behavior in regards purchase, consumption, and wastage makes such interventions difficult, and that an analytical model characterizing these behaviors will be helpful for furthering work in this direction. With this goal, we develop an analytical model incorporating factors (parameters) that influence consumption and wastage in households. While our model applies generally to perishable items including dairy products, we focus on Fresh Fruit and Vegetables (FFV) as it constitutes a large fraction of food wasted in households, even as many people consume far less FFV than the amount recommended for a healthy diet. Using numerical experiments for a range of parameter values obtained from the extant literature and from a survey, we identify the parameter combinations that result in larger volumes of wastage. Our findings will be useful for future research focusing on recommendations for reducing wastage and improving intake of FFV in households.