Food waste matters - A systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications

There has been growing interest in establishing food waste prevention and recovery programs throughout the world. The drive to target food waste stems from increasing concerns about resource conservation, food security, food waste's environmental and economic costs, and a general trend in the waste management industry to transition to more sustainable practices. Here the drivers of residential, institutional, and commercial food waste generation in developed countries, particularly in the U.S., are explored. The impacts of food system modernization on food waste generation are examined, including impacts related to food system industrialization, urbanization, globalization, and economic growth. Socio-demographic, cultural, political, and economic drivers of food waste are described with emphasis on how food waste perspectives may vary globally. Specific behaviors and attitudes which result from many of these waste drivers are then discussed. The examination of the range of food wastage drivers are used to provide insight into the best policy approaches to sustainably manage food waste. Food waste prevention policies are placed in context of the waste generating behaviors and attitudes that they address. A review of important background information on food waste is also provided, including definitions of key terms, food waste history, quantities of food waste generated, and the importance of food waste prevention for sustainability, as this information is all critical for effective policy development.

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Drivers of food waste and their implications for sustainable policy development

The role of life cycle assessment in supporting sustainable agri-food systems: A review of the challenges

Food losses and food waste (FLW) have become a global concern in recent years and emerge as a priority in the global and national political agenda (e.g., with Target 12.3 in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). A good understanding of the availability and quality of global FLW data is a prerequisite for tracking progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts, and exploring mitigation strategies for FLW. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past years; however, significant challenges remain, such as data inconsistency and a narrow temporal, geographical, and food supply chain coverage. In this paper, we examined 202 publications which reported FLW data for 84 countries and 52 individual years from 1933 to 2014. We found that most existing publications are conducted for a few industrialized countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the United States), and over half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties i...

Missing Food, Missing Data? A Critical Review of Global Food Losses and Food Waste Data

Household food waste behaviour in EU-27 countries: A multilevel analysis

The reduction of food waste is seen as an important lever for ensuring food security and diminishing environmental burdens. In context of the forthcoming revision of the European Waste Directive the EC is planning to commit its Member States to reduce their food waste by 30% until 2025. To reach this ambitious objective effective prevention measures have to be implemented. This requires detailed knowledge on drivers and reasons for food waste generation along the food supply chain and the ‘hotspots of wastage’. The paper provides information on these two topics. Main drivers for food waste generation are process- and market-based standards, non-compliance with food safety requirements, exceeding of expiry dates, marketing standards or logistic constraints, but also consumer preferences and societal trends like growing prosperity, declining food prices, rising number of single households and increasing employment of women. As surveys and calculations indicate, the highest waste rates in Europe occur at the first stage (primary production) and the last stage (household sector) of the supply chain. The paper further presents a set of policy options on European and national level which are considered most promising to prevent food waste. The selection is based on a thorough literature review, reflecting also the results of a stakeholder workshop held in November 2014. The analysis reveals that most of the prevention measures implemented in the EU Member States up to now are soft instruments like awareness campaigns, round tables, networks and information platforms. In addition to this soft instruments, the paper advocates for the introduction of more rigorous approaches like the abolishment of subsidies on food, amendments to EU regulations and economic incentives. Further research is required to assess the impacts and efficacy of economic and regulatory instruments.

Food waste prevention in Europe – A cause-driven approach to identify the most relevant leverage points for action

There is a broad consensus in literature that private households are significant contributors to the total amount of food waste in the EU. Thus, any strategy to meaningfully combat food wastage must put the end consumer in the center of prevention activities. This requires deeper insights into people’s motivations to discard still edible food and knowledge about potential barriers to reduce wasting. This paper reports on results of an online survey among two European research centers in Italy (JRC/Ispra) and Germany (KIT/Karlsruhe). The focus of the survey was on households’ behaviors (shopping, eating, and food preparation habits) and its influence on the generation of food waste. Furthermore, reasons for the disposal of food as well as measures and technologies most needed to prevent wastage were discussed. The results of the survey are analyzed, especially with regard to two questions: (1) Are there considerable differences between Ispra and Karlsruhe? (2) Are there considerable similarities or inconsistencies with the results of previous studies?

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Food Waste Generation at Household Level: Results of a Survey among Employees of Two European Research Centers in Italy and Germany

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0734242X14545374

The extent of food waste generation across EU-27: different calculation methods and the reliability of their results

Impact of the use of waste on trace element concentrations in cement and concrete

In response to climate change, the limited availability of fossil fuels and the risks associated with nuclear energy, Germany’s energy transition aims to achieve a sustainable, environmentally sound supply of energy services. A monitoring process was established by the Federal Government to ensure that the targets defined for the transformation will be reached. The indicator system developed for that purpose mainly focuses on “classical” environmental, economic and technological indicators for which statistical time series data and political targets are available. Important socio-technical aspects of the energy system and its transition, such as affordability, participation and acceptance, remain largely neglected. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on indicators needed for political decision-making to appropriately address sustainability aspects of the energy system and its transition, as well as to contribute to improving existing indicator systems. Therefore, the sustainability rules of the Integrative Concept of Sustainable Development were translated into indicators based on an in-depth literature review. The resulting abundance of possible indicators was then reduced using selection criteria such as comprehensiveness, possibility to determine targets and availability of data. Finally, the indicator system was adjusted based on feedback of experts from different disciplines and stakeholder interviews in the particular investigation area of southwest Thuringia. Besides classical indicators related to techno-economic and environmental aspects, the finally developed indicator system includes new sustainability indicators related to the socio-technical interface of the energy system. Thus, it is considered suitable for assessing the sustainability of the Germany energy system and its transition in an integrative and comprehensive way. The indicator system is helpful to systematically identify strengths and weaknesses of the energy system and interdependencies and conflicts of goals between different sustainability aspects. All in all, we believe that applying the indicator system appropriately can support the development of resilient political strategies for a successful energy transition.

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Klaus-Rainer Bräutigam

Papers

Food waste prevention in Europe – A cause-driven approach to identify the most relevant leverage points for action

Food Waste Generation at Household Level: Results of a Survey among Employees of Two European Research Centers in Italy and Germany

The extent of food waste generation across EU-27: different calculation methods and the reliability of their results

Impact of the use of waste on trace element concentrations in cement and concrete

Indicator system for the sustainability assessment of the German energy system and its transition