Looking for Answers to Food Loss and Waste Management in Spain from a Holistic Nutritional and Economic Approach

Jara Laso,Pere Fullana-I-Palmer,Rebeca Abajas,Sergio Tezanos,Rubén Aldaco,Francisco José Amo-Setién,Daniel Hoehn,Cristina Campos,Ainoa Quiñones,Ana Fernández-Ríos,Ricardo Abejón,Alba Bala,María Margallo,Andrea Del Río,María Del Carmen Ortego,Israel Ruiz-Salmón,Jorge Cristobal,Rita Puig

doi:10.3390/su13010125

Jara Laso, Pere Fullana-I-Palmer + Show 16 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010125

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Abstract

The generation of food loss and waste (FLW) is a global problem for worldwide politics. About one-third of the food produced ends up in the rubbish before it is consumed. For this reason, it is essential to design and implement new strategies along the food supply chain (FSC) with the aim of reducing this FLW at each stage. However, not only mass quantification should be considered, but also economic and nutritional performance. The novelty of this study is the definition of a methodology based on the “distance to target” approach by means of multi-objective optimization to evaluate the economic and nutritional cost produced by this FLW. This methodology was applied to the Spanish food basket in 2015. The results revealed that 80% of the total FLW generated in economic and nutritional terms is concentrated in the agricultural production (53.3%) and consumption (26.3%) stages. In the first stages of the FSC, fruits (Dn eq.= 0.7), cereals (Dn eq.= 0.61), and vegetables (Dn eq.= 0.57) were the furthest from the distance target due to the great amount of FLW generated. Moreover, according to the normalized weighted distances obtained from the minimization of economic and nutritional cost, pulses (Dn eq. = 0.05–0.03) and eggs (Dn eq. = 0.02) were the more efficient food categories. The methodology described in this study proposes a single index to quantify the economic and nutritional cost of different food categories to facilitate the decision-making process. This index makes possible the definition of reduction strategies focused on specific food categories and depending on the FSC stage.

Highlights

Food loss and waste (FLW) is a mainstream environmental, social, and economic concern at a global scale [1]
The total food loss and waste (FLW) is shown on the right bar of the graph
This analysis revealed that almost 54% of FLW was generated in the agriculture stage due to climatic causes, technological deficiencies, overproduction, and food quality standards

Summary

Introduction

Food loss and waste (FLW) is a mainstream environmental, social, and economic concern at a global scale [1]. Sustainability 2021, 13, 125 consumption are wasted each year in the world [2]. FLW is produced along the whole food supply chain (FSC), including agricultural production, post-harvest, handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution, and final consumption. Despite of the lack of harmonization in terminology, it is important to distinguish between the losses (FL) that occur at the beginning of the FSC (agricultural production, post-harvest, and processing), and those wastes (FW) generated at the end of the FSC [3], which are more related to retailers and consumer behavior [4]. Low-income countries are characterized by important FL in the early stages of FSC, from agricultural production to processing, where impacts are the strongest and losses tend to be the largest due to the lack of technological infrastructure causing significant post-harvest losses. Medium- and high-income countries result in great FW in the retail and consumption stages, as products are discarded even if they are still suitable for human consumption [5]

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