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Scientific Article details

Title Food waste accounting along global and European food supply chains: State of the art and outlook
ID_Doc 6895
Authors Corrado, S; Sala, S
Title Food waste accounting along global and European food supply chains: State of the art and outlook
Year 2018
Published
DOI 10.1016/j.wasman.2018.07.032
Abstract Contributing to environmental pollution and resources depletion, food waste represents a considerable inefficiency of the global food system. Within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, countries committed to halve per-capita food waste generated at retail and consumer levels and to decrease food waste along the food supply chain by 2030. Reliable and detailed information on food waste is of utmost importance for the actors of the food supply chain, organizations and governments willing to implement and monitor effective reduction strategies. The present paper is a review of existing studies on food waste generation at the global and European scales and aims primarily at describing and comparing the approaches adopted, and secondarily at analysing their potential in supporting food waste related European interventions and policies. Ten studies were selected among relevant scientific papers and grey literature and their underlying quantification methodologies were systematically analysed. Methodological elements discussed in the paper include type of waste streams captured by estimations, distinction between edible and inedible food waste along the agro-food supply chain, reported units of measure, overall inefficiencies of the food system, and uncertainty of data. Current estimations of food loss and waste generation range between 194-389 kg per person per year at the global scale, and between 158-298 kg per person per year at the European scale. However, further efforts are needed to improve their level of detail and reliability and to foster their support to food loss and waste-related strategies. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.
Author Keywords Food loss; Food waste; Estimation; Sustainable Development Goal 12; Circular economy; Waste framework directive
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
EID WOS:000449133500013
WoS Category Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences
Research Area Engineering; Environmental Sciences & Ecology
PDF https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.07.032
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