Bounce back of almost wasted food: Redistribution of fresh fruit and vegetables surpluses from Istanbul's supermarkets

Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing international consensus to prioritize food waste prevention. Addressing the prevention interventions of food waste re-emphasizes the requirement of reducing and ‘rescuing’ food surplus which would otherwise be wasted. Redistribution of surplus food is one of the ways to prevent potential food waste in supermarkets. This research, handling fresh fruit and vegetables surplus, attempts to provide an assessment of the food waste prevention intervention in retail stores thanks to redistribution. Data on surplus food rescued is collected from 97 stores in Istanbul metropolitan city and prevented food waste represents the surplus food that is sent to landfills at other times. The results show that it is possible to prevent 60% of fresh fruit and vegetable waste via redistribution of surplus food. In this article, life cycle assessment was used to compare the environmental impacts of the baseline situation where surplus food is redistributed with those linked to waste treatment scenarios. Analyzing 528.8 tons of surplus fruit and vegetables generated in 97 stores over 18 months, the environmental impacts avoided by redistributing surplus food were found to be: 375.1*10³ CO2-eq, 209.5*10³ m3 water, 135.8*104 MJ. The avoided economic impact was at a minimum of 1.42 million Turkish Liras (worth US $186,817 in 2020). Assessing food waste prevention interventions based on life cycle thinking with data from real-life cases would encourage such initiatives by identified environmental and economic benefits. This study has revealed that the potential of surplus food in supermarkets has not yet been noticed in countries which have no special legislation as Turkey. The results obtained by the research could be used by and help policymakers and the private sector to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals concerning food loss and waste reduction targets at the retail level.