Abstract
PurposeFood waste is acknowledged as a major environmental issue, but the retail sector has only begun to recognise this in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to answer when, how and why food waste became important for retail in Sweden.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach was used that included a literature review, quantitative data from retail, field studies, 11 interviews and a media study consisting of newspaper articles spanning 10 years. The combined methods provided qualitative rigor and saturation.FindingsResults show that the increased interest in the issue stems from several factors working together. These factors include the availability of data, the formation of actor networks working together, increased societal environmental awareness, attitude change amongst consumers and retail, and the role of media as an actor and a method for making the issue visible. In addition, results show how the issue surfaced further, as more data became available. Findings suggest that food waste became an environmental issue, and later, the focus shifted to finding solutions for retail.Originality/valueThe results highlight the importance for policy to implement preventive measures and strengthen incentives for retail to work with reducing food waste. Such incentives should target cheap food, education, routines, legislation and business models throughout the food chain.
Highlights
Food waste is a global problem and Sustainable Development Goal 12 aims to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses” (SDG 12.3)
Food waste occurs when an edible item is unconsumed at the end of the supply chain, including retail (Buzby et al, 2011; Priefer et al, 2016; Garrone et al, 2014), which is the focus of this study
To answer when and how food waste became important for retail, we used the three identified media spikes and reflected on them based on the results of the interviews
Summary
Food waste is a global problem and Sustainable Development Goal 12 aims to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses” (SDG 12.3). The United Nations reports that about one-third of all food is lost (FAO, 2011), and this has a considerable economic and environmental impact. This is highlighted in the latest IPCC report on land use and other studies identifying food waste as a global issue (Parfitt et al, 2010; West et al, 2014; FAO, 2011). Knowledge in retail about food waste is important due to the position of retail as a gatekeeper between production
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