Domestic Food Waste Research Articles

Freezing time, freezing in time: reconfiguring freezing practices for reducing meat waste and energy consumption

Considering that many fresh food items require domestic cold storage, understanding the role of appliances such as freezers is critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions relating to domestic food waste and energy use. Using a social practices approach, this article reports on a study of cold storage and food waste practices, particularly freezing relating to meat, in 20 Australian households. Householders were interviewed twice, over winter and summer, 2022–2023. We studied intersecting practices of eating, shopping, cooking and cold storage, and their connection to larger social phenomena such as cold supply chains to gain insights into how and why meat was wasted. Although we set out to study household practices, we found that retailer practices of pricing specials and bulk buying must also be considered. Retailer practices combined with ambiguity in consumer understandings of date labels, shelf life and freezing times mean that domestic cold storage has become a normalised extension of the cold supply chain of food, especially for meat. We argue that understandings such as convenience and thriftiness, in conjunction with retailer expectations of domestic cold storage, may lead to the ratcheting up of household freezer use for food storage. We illustrate through our findings that this may potentially increase energy consumption and accelerate food waste, which becomes particularly problematic for carbon-intensive foods such as red meat. In innovatively reimagining domestic cold storage as an extension of industrial and retailer cold supply chains, we explore what kind of capabilities may be required for an equitable and low waste cold supply chain that reduces reliance on household freezers.

Synergic treatment of domestic wastewater and food waste in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor demo plant: Process performance, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions

Ambient operation and large-scale demonstration have limited the implementation and evaluation of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) for low-strength wastewater treatment. Here, we studied these issues at an AnMBR demo plant that treats domestic wastewater and food waste together at ambient temperatures (7–28 °C). At varied hydraulic retention times (HRTs, 8–42 h), the AnMBR achieved a COD removal efficiency and biogas production of 80.4% ± 3.9% and 66.5 ± 9.4 NL/m3-Influent, respectively. Moreover, a stable high membrane flux of 14.4 L/m2/h was reached. The electric energy consumption for the AnMBR operation was 0.269–0.433 kW·h/m3, and 49.4%–91.3% could be compensated by the electric energy produced from methane production. At an HRT of 10 h, the AnMBR system demonstrated an impressively low net electric energy consumption of merely 0.05 kW·h/m3, resulting in a net greenhouse gas emission of 0.015 CO2-eq/m3, cutting 85% compared to the conventional activated sludge process. Achievements in this study provide key parameters for the ambient operation of AnMBR and demonstrate that AnMBR is an energy-saving and low-carbon solution for low-strength wastewater treatment.

Environmental burden of excessive food intake: Exploring new opportunities to enhance food and environmental sustainability in China

China faces increasing challenges in producing sufficient food sustainably while confronting a worsening overweight and obesity crisis caused partly by overeating. Building on the China Health and Nutrition Survey data, this study estimated the agricultural and environmental implications of overeating based on human metabolic theory and life cycle assessment. The results show that the average excess food intake per person is twice the amount of household edible food waste (53.85 vs. 26.88 g/capita/day). The total excessive food intake is equivalent to 18.7 Mt of annual cereal production, approximately 4.3 times China's recent annual cereal production growth (4.4 Mt). Excessive food intake also embodies substantial carbon, water, energy, and ecological footprints, amounting to 39.15 Mt CO2e, 31.40 Gm3, 11.18 Mtce, 544.69 × 108 gm2, respectively, significantly exceeding the corresponding domestic food waste footprints. Cereals and meats have a dominant role in excessive food intake and related environmental impacts, with significant differences linked to demographic characteristics and urbanization levels. China has implemented various national policies, including an anti-food-waste law, to address agri-food sustainability challenges. This study suggests that addressing overeating can significantly enhance China's ability to tackle these challenges and improve public health outcomes.

In Situ Treatment of Domestic Food Waste and Bioflocculated Sewage Sludge in Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Plant

In Situ Treatment of Domestic Food Waste and Bioflocculated Sewage Sludge in Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Plant

Fungal co-culture enabled co-fermentation of food waste for production of endoglucanase enzyme

The primary scenarios of biochemical industries include diverse applications with high demand and the costly manufacturing of microbial cellulolytic enzymes. Using these enzymes to turn cellulosic waste into fuel is one of the prime applications of these enzymes to produce green fuel. Nevertheless, low production and weak functional abilities make these enzymes expensive and technically non-viable. This study presents multifactor bioprocess approaches to enhance cellulolytic enzyme production and efficiency using a low-cost strategy. Co-fermentation of pea pods (PPs) and potato peel (PP) wastes as food wastes has been conducted for solid-state fermentation (SSF) using fungal strain-based co-culture. To set the SSF, the nutrient medium and moisture balance of SSF have been maintained using an extract of PPs and PP waste, which are found to be rich in sugar and starch composition. Starch may function as a natural inducer in the SSF process to alleviate enzyme production in the presence of sugar composition. At 37 oC and pH 5.0, a maximum of 2.4 U/mL FPA (filter paper activity) has been produced at a substrate ratio of 4:04 (PPs:PP) using 50% of the moisture content on day 5 of the harvesting period. Additionally, 24.7 IU/mL of CMCase (carboxymethyl cellulase) in day 8 and 18.8 IU/mL of BGL (β-Glucosidase) in day 7 have been obtained. A temperature of 37 oC was found to be optimal, while a pH range of 5.0–9.0 was noticed to be optimal for maximum CMCase activity. Thus, the study may provide a sustainable approach to valorizing domestic solid food waste for the economic production of hydrolytic enzymes.

Enhancing Food and Nutrition Literacy: A Key Strategy for Reducing Food Waste and Improving Diet Quality

Excessive food purchases, improper storage, incorrect food preparation, and the disposal of non-expired products contribute significantly to household food waste. Food and nutritional literacy can, therefore, be linked to household food waste and not just to diet quality. Consumers with high food literacy appear to better organize their food shopping and waste less than people with low food literacy. Different studies have demonstrated the association between high nutritional literacy, healthy eating habits, and a high amount of food waste, represented by highly perishable products. The relationship between a high-quality diet and food waste is mainly attributable to the consumption of fruit and vegetables, while an unhealthy diet is associated with fewer leftovers due to the high consumption of ultra-processed foods with a long shelf life. Social and economic conditions influence the effects of literacy on the production of domestic food waste. Many studies have reported that low-income individuals rarely waste food, while richer ones tend to produce more leftovers. The challenge for the scientific, educational, and health policy sectors is to promote the consumption of fresh, healthy, and inexpensive foods, especially in the most disadvantaged segments of the population, and at the same time, provide the knowledge necessary to limit the production of household waste.

Co-fermentation of titanium-flocculated-sludge with food waste towards simultaneous water purification and resource recovery

Recovery of resources from domestic sewage and food waste has always been an international-thorny problem. Titanium-based flocculation can achieve high-efficient destabilization, quick concentration and separation of organic matter from sewage to sludge. This study proposed co-fermentation of the titanium-flocculated sludge (Ti-loaded sludge) and food waste towards resource recovery by converting organic matter to value-added volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and inorganic matter to struvite and TiO2 nanoparticles. When Ti-loaded sludge and food waste were co-fermented at a mass ratio of 3:1, the VFAs yield reached 3725.2 mg-COD/L (VFAs/SCOD 91.0%), which was more than 4 times higher than the case of the sludge alone. The 48-day semicontinuous co-fermentation demonstrated stable long-term operation, yielding VFAs at 2529.0 mg-COD/L (VFAs/SCOD 89.8%) and achieving a high CODVFAs/NNH4 of 58.9. Food waste provided sufficient organic substrate, enriching plenty of acid-producing fermentation bacteria (such as Prevotella 7 about 21.0% and Bacteroides about 9.4%). Moreover, metagenomic sequencing analysis evidenced the significant increase of the relative gene abundance corresponding to enzymes in pathways, such as extracellular hydrolysis, substrates metabolism, and VFAs biosynthesis. After fermentation, the precious element P (≥ 99.0%) and extra-added element Ti (≥99.0%) retained in fermented residues, without releasing to VFAs supernatant, which facilitated the direct re-use of VFAs as resource. Through simple and commonly used calcination and acid leaching methodologies, 80.9% of element P and 82.1% of element Ti could be successfully recovered as struvite and TiO2 nanoparticles, respectively. This research provides a strategy for the co-utilization of domestic sludge and food waste, which can realize both reduction of sludge and recovery of resources.

Corrigendum: Domestic Food Waste Derived Porous Carbon for Energy Storage Applications

Corrigendum: Domestic Food Waste Derived Porous Carbon for Energy Storage Applications

마감할인서비스 모바일 애플리케이션의 농식품 폐기 감축 대안으로서의 가능성 진단

This study aims to analyze the impact of using ‘Last Order’, a mobile application that provides a discount service for near-expiry food, on food waste reduction, and to verify whether food redistribution through such a platform can be an effective alternative to proactively reducing domestic food waste. A survey was conducted among 216 ‘Last Order’ users and 376 non-users, of which 469 respondents(136 users and 333 non-users), excluding single-person households, were used for the analysis. The results of the analysis showed that the variable ‘whether or not to use the application which discounts service for near-expiry food’ had a significant negative value, indicating that the use of the application contributed to a reduction in the amount of food waste generated per household per day. It implies that increased use of the application will increase the potential for reducing food waste through the consumption of near-expiry food from retailers to households.

Household meal planning as anticipatory practice: The role of anticipation in managing domestic food consumption and waste

Food waste is a major contributor to various environmental problems and food wasted at the household level makes up a significant proportion of the overall estimated totals. Fundamental questions remain about this waste as an aspect of domestic consumption and the appropriate policy response. Deficiencies in household food planning have been posited as a potential factor related to food waste production in the home, but this has not been developed in a way which connects clearly to existing sociological studies of meal planning. This paper therefore engages with feminist literature on domestic meal planning and material culture approaches to food waste. It moves the concept of anticipatory practice to the domestic space, to address forms of domestic meal planning and other food-related practices as anticipatory practices which are inherently oriented to the future. The paper draws on a number of semi-structured interviews, research diaries, and images completed and submitted by participants to highlight the establish meal planning practices as anticipatory, and to identify other forms of anticipatory practices around food. As part of this, the association of additional food in the home with food waste is also questioned and practices such as batch cooking are reassessed along with related practices. Meal planning is ultimately described as an anticipatory practice, a broader designation of organisational practices involved in food consumption which may be relevant for policy and research concerning food waste reduction.

Enhanced adsorption of ceftriaxone antibiotics from water by activated carbon derived from agriculture products waste.

The present work determines efficiency of domestic food waste like tea waste in removing pharmaceutical waste such as ceftriaxone (CEF) from synthetic wastewater. Carbonaceous material; Tea waste activated carbon (TAC) has been employed and it showed high removal capacity of 787.5 mg/g. TAC was characterized using; XPS, XRD, SEM, FT-IR, and BET as well as it approved that the adsorbent a has high surface area of .6 m2 /g. Various experimental parameters are evaluated for the removal efficiency of the synthesized adsorbent under the present study. During the adsorption study through batch experiments, it approved that the adsorption isotherm was fitted to Langmuir, while kinetically fitted to pseudo-second-order; the adsorption process was chemisorption process as the adsorption energy was 23.7 kJ mol-1 . From evaluation thermodynamic parameters the adsorption reaction was endothermic and spontaneous reaction. The different real samples spiked with CEF and studies the efficiency of TAC to remove it. On the other hand, investigated the regeneration efficiency of the TAC and exhibit high regeneration efficiency as it will be used after four cycles with good efficiency of about 84.2%.

Potential of existing strategies to reduce net anthropogenic inputs of phosphorus to land in the United States

Improving phosphorus (P) management is important for both ecosystem protection and avoiding mineable P scarcity. In order to inform the development of impactful solutions to both of these issues, we assessed the potential of several specific management strategies to reduce demand for new mined P in fertilizers and supplements for livestock, thereby reducing net P inputs to land. The strategies assessed were variable rate fertilizer (VRF) application, improvements to P digestibility for livestock, efficient utilization of manure and wastewater treatment (WWT) P, and elimination of avoidable domestic food waste. The potential of these strategies to reduce net anthropogenic P inputs was assessed at the county level for the coterminous US using the commodity-specific net anthropogenic P and nitrogen inputs (CSNAPNI) model. The largest contributions toward eliminating NAPI in the US can come from efficient manure utilization either at national (30%–50% NAPI reduction) or county-level (21%–30% NAPI reduction). However, widespread adoption of VRF (10%–41% NAPI reduction), and all other strategies considered (5% or greater NAPI reductions each) could make significant contributions. In combinations of strategies that included VRF or P digestibility improvements, negative feedbacks occurred. VRF reduced demand for fertilizer, thereby reducing the potential for efficient manure and WWT P utilization at the county-level. P digestibility improvements in poultry and swine diets reduced the expected production of recoverable manure P by 36%, decreasing the total manure P that could be used to replace mined P fertilizer. However, P digestibility improvements also reduced county-level excess manure P by 25%. Prior studies have focused on quantifying P inputs or the potential of in-situ best management practices to reduce losses to water, but strategies to reduce P inputs are understudied.

Co-digestion of domestic kitchen food waste and palm oil mill effluent for biohydrogen production

Biohydrogen production from organic waste not only provides a sustainable way to produce biofuel but it also resolves the growing environmental concerns associated with agro-industrial waste. This research study investigated the biological hydrogen production potential in batch mode through co-digestion of domestic kitchen food waste (DKFW) and palm oil mill effluent (POME) under mesophilic conditions by immobilized Bacillus anthracis bacterial strain. The results showed that hydrogen production from co-digestion of DKFW and POME with an equal proportion of the combination is pH and temperature-dependent. Where, the elevated pH from 4.0 to 5.0 increases hydrogen production significantly; however, increasing the pH > 5.0 reduces productivity. Similarly, by raising the operating temperature from 25 °C to 35 °C the hydrogen production rate (HPR) increases up to 67 mL/h. Apart from hydrogen production, a reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) was observed by up to 72 % in this study. The improvement observed for HPR and a significant reduction in COD, suggests that the co-digestion of POME and DKFW is an ideal substrate for hydrogen production at operational temperatures and initial pH of 35 °C and 5.0, respectively. The strategy for utilizing the different organic waste together as a substrate provides a new avenue for the complex substrate for bioenergy production.

Anaerobic Co-Digestion to Enhance Waste Management Sustainability at Yosemite National Park

This study evaluated the co-digestion of domestic wastewater solids (WWS) and food waste (FW) at the bench-scale for Yosemite National Park, California, which operates a 1900 m3/d wastewater treatment plant in El Portal, California. A 35-day biochemical methane potential test was performed on varying amounts of FW as a percentage of total waste (WWS plus FW) on a volatile solids basis (%FW). Specific methane yield and volumetric methane yield increased substantially with increasing %FW. A higher %FW was also associated with slower degradation kinetics but higher methane content in biogas. The 75 %FW treatment had relatively rapid kinetics, a high cumulative specific methane yield (453 mL CH4/g VS), and an elevated methane content in biogas, and is suggested as an upper limit %FW mixture for full-scale co-digestion. This, coincidently, is near the estimated ratio of WWS and FW production at the Park (70 %FW). Co-digesting the Park’s feedstock of FW with WWS in existing anaerobic digestion facilities could increase methane production five-fold. Combusting this methane in a combined heat and power system would produce about twice the energy needed to heat anaerobic digestors and power the treatment plant.

Food waste in time of COVID-19: The heterogeneous effects on consumer groups in Italy and the Netherlands

Since COVID-19 outbreak, States adopted different combinations of measures to restrain its spread that affected individual behaviors and the already fragile local and global food systems. The aim of this research is to contribute to the scientific debate around food systems sustainability through the analysis of behavioral shifts in household food waste drivers, specifically occurring during the recent global pandemic. A survey was developed based on an extended version of the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) approach. A representative sample of 3000 respondents in Italy and in the Netherlands (1500 per country) completed this survey in May 2020, while lockdown to mitigate the first wave of COVID-19 outbreak was active in both countries. A cluster analysis based on individual food-waste- related behaviors identified four homogenous groups of consumers in the Italian sample and five in the Dutch sample. The comparative analysis of these groups led to the identification of several communalities in behavioral patterns, both within and between the two countries. Results suggest that in both countries, self-reported quantities of household food waste actually decreased, with a stronger reduction reported by Italian consumers. The MOA approach allowed to explain this perceived reduction as largely depending on the increase of opportunity to dedicate more time - to food-related activities as compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, with positive consequences on food management ability. These findings assist in drafting recommendations for tailored interventions to reduce the amount of domestic food waste and preserve positive behaviors emerged during lockdown, that could be continued in the absence of crisis.

Energy and carbon footprint analysis of municipal wastewater treatment process integrated with food waste disposer

Household food waste (FW) management has become an emerging environmental issue affecting sustainable urban development. The application of in-sink domestic food waste disposers (FWDs) have brought significant public attentions due to its simplified waste handling process and reduced household expenses. However, the potentail negative impacts of mixing FW in the sewer system, i.e., the reduction of aeration efficiency in wastewater treatment processes (WWTPs) and corresponding increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, has not been quantified. In this study, real-time oxygen transfer efficiency in processing water was measured in WWTPs receiving negligible amount of FW and compared with those receiving sewage combined with FWD effluent. WWTP receiving sewage with FW had 6–10% lower oxygen transfer rate than those without FW, resulting in extra energy consumptions of 0.25–0.30 kWh/m3 and GHG emissions of 0.35–0.41 kg CO2/m3. For estimating the substantial impacts of FWD to the carbon cycle, sludge treatment scenarios were designed among anaerobic digestion (AD), incineration, and direct landfill disposal. Compared with AD (−0.07 kWh/kg) and incineration (0.112 kWh/kg), FWD/WWTP consumed more energy (0.69–0.9 kWh/kg) and most of which (∼64%) was required by aeration. The operating costs of WWTPs also increased by 1.6–2.1 times in comparison with those did not receive FW. The application of FWD, however, could reduce the overall GHG emissions by 35.2% in comparison with direct landfilling. Decision-makers should guide householders and waste management practitioners through new policies such as carbon credits and/or waste charging scheme to support more environmental-friendly disposal methods of FW, especally when the maturity of socio-economic conditions are of concerns. Compared with AD and incineration, FWD may be a compromising alternative to control GHG emissions with existing wastewater treatment facilities especially to those regions where complete FW classification and treatment are not well-established.

Preventing Food Waste by the Shelf-Life Dynamical Control in Smart Homes

Currently, smart homes are designed and improved according to four main goals: residents’ wellness, security, comfort, and reduced energy waste. No focus has yet been reserved for one of the most impacting problems of recent years: domestic food waste. In this context, this letter proposes a case study that jointly involves recent advances in smart homes and the need for food waste reduction. The proposed system is divided into two main blocks: the sensing block and the actuation one. The sensing block consists of multiple nodes, which, in the proposed case study, work as dynamic labels being stuck to the good to be monitored. Each node embeds, on a miniaturized board, a set of sensors (i.e., temperature, humidity, and ambient light), whose outcomes are used to extract, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on-board</i> , the dynamic food shelf life (SL). The presence of an onboard inertial measurement unit also permits the nodes' localization inside the environment. If a sudden decrease in the food SL is recorded by the node and no human interventions occur in a preset timeout, the node is designed to send a call for intervention to the actuation block. In this letter, the actuation block is realized through an assistive robotic platform that can gather coordinates of food from sensor nodes, navigate to them to manipulate the goods, and actuate actions to improve their preservation conditions (increasing the perspective SL). The actuation block is also responsible for notifying the user of the bad storage conditions. The system has been experimentally tested in a laboratory environment. The whole mitigation chain successfully completed all the operations through the robotic platform in 60% of cases. Moreover, comparing food left in poor storage conditions and the same food managed by the our proposed system, an improvement of the food expiration date of ∼55% (on average) has been recorded.

Awareness of Household Food Waste Management with A Zero-Waste Concept: A Preliminary Study

This is pilot study designed to ascertain college students' understanding of domestic food waste management using an online questioner. The descriptive results section of the report is used to describe the central tendency of the data collected for each variable. Meanwhile, the people who took part in the research were all part of a webinar on waste management that was led by people from universities and environmental groups. The findings indicated that students' knowledge of domestic food waste management remained diverse. Some of them continue to view waste management as a time-consuming and demanding activity. Community understanding about waste management, especially food, should be given early and started at home. As a result, environmentally friendly activities must be regularly promoted and implemented at the school, university, government, and community levels in order to improve people's quality of life.

Domestic plant food loss and waste in the United States: Environmental footprints and mitigation strategies

The United States (U.S.) aims to reduce half of food loss and waste (FLW) by 2030. To achieve this goal, the public, academic, and political attentions on FLW have been increasing, and a series of actions have been implemented. However, the actions lack consideration on the categorical priority of FLW mitigation in relation to environmental footprints. In this article, we compare the FLW of three main plant food categories (i.e., grains, vegetables, and fruits) and their water and carbon footprints during 1970–2017. The vegetable FLW doubled during the period, reaching 3.39 × 1010 kg in 2017, which was 5- and 2-fold higher than the FLW of grains and fruits, respectively. The FLW of vegetables, grains, and fruits contributed 29%, 47%, and 24% to the total blue water wasted through FLW. The total carbon dioxide emissions generated by plant FLW were contributed by vegetables with 50%, grains with 31%, and fruits with 19%. Canonical correspondence analysis indicates that vegetable FLW had a higher positive correlation with urbanization, household incomes, gross domestic product, and high-income population than grain FLW, whereas fruit FLW was not influenced by these socioeconomic factors. Therefore, we suggest that the FLW mitigation should be prioritized on vegetables. Specific strategies include local food sourcing, shortening food miles, building food belts, and developing controlled-environment agriculture. Our data-based comparisons provide valuable insights into food policy improvement for achieving the 2030 reduction goal of the U.S., but the insights could be improved by considering the influences of foods imported from other nations.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Using Post-Kerbside Organics Treatment Systems to Engage Australian Communities with Pro-Environmental Household Food Waste Behaviours

Dealing with the wicked problem of global food waste and loss is a complex and challenging area. In Australia, increased political will has landed the diversion of domestic food waste from landfill squarely at the feet of local government (councils), often requiring significant change to kerbside collections systems. This paper discusses how post-kerbside household food waste treatment systems can encourage pro-environmental behaviours. To achieve this, current food waste literature is examined against kerbside domestic waste collection measurable outcomes (diversion rates, system uptake and contamination rates). The hypothesis is that specific interventions can establish, or rebuild, community trust, responsibility and pro-environmental behaviours around food waste avoidance and diversion. Two post-kerbside systems—commercial composting and anaerobic digestion—provided the framework. Two themes emerged from the study: (1) the benefits of connecting the community with the interactions of household food waste inputs with post-treatment outputs (compost, soil conditioners, digestates and biogases); and (2) providing engaged communities with pathways for sustainable, pro-environmental actions whilst normalizing correct kerbside food waste recycling for the less engaged (habitual behaviours, knowledge and cooperation). The paper contributes to understanding how councils can connect their communities with the issues of household food waste.