ArticlePDF Available

Global Food Losses and Food Waste

  • January 2011
Authors:
Jenny Gustavsson
Jenny Gustavsson
Jenny Gustavsson
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Christel Cederberg at Chalmers University of Technology
Christel Cederberg
Ulf Sonesson at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
Ulf Sonesson
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation
Content uploaded by Christel Cederberg
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Christel Cederberg on Mar 12, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
Global Food Losses
and Food Waste
Jenny Gustavsson, Christel Cederberg & Ulf Sonesson
SIK –The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology
Save Food Congress, Düsseldorf 16 May 2011
The assignment
–Collect, analyze and assemble knowledge on
global food losses and waste.
–Knowledge is limited!
Two studies:
Medium and high income countries:
Region 1: Europe (including Russia)
Region 2: USA, Canada, Australia & New Zeeland
Region 3: China, Japan, South Korea
Low income countries:
Region 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
Region 5: North Africa, Central Asia & Western Asia
Region 6: South and Southeastern Asia
Region 7: Latin Amerika
1
2
Scope
For each region:
Agricultural
production
Postharvest
handling and
storage
Processing
and packaging
Distribution
Consumption
Cereals
Roots & tubers
Fruit & Vegetables
Oilseeds & pulses
Meat
Fish & Seafood
Milk & Eggs
Questions:
•Volumes produced?
•Percentage of losses/waste in each step of the food
supply chain?
•Amounts of food lost/wasted?
•Economic costs of food losses/waste?
•Energy required for producing losses/waste?
•Causes of losses/waste?
•How to prevent losses/waste?
Methods
•Literature study
•Personal contact with researchers
•Local FAO-Officers
•Food Balance Sheets
•Food prices (producer + retail)
•LCA- studies on food production
•Calculations and combinations of data from
different sources
•Estimations and assumptions!
Percentage of waste - trends
Whole food supply chain
Low income countries
%
Step in food supply chain
Medium and high income
countries
Volumes of waste
Total:
SSA: 15-20 Mton –7 billion USD
North Africa, Western Asia & Central Asia: 25-30 Mton –12 billion USD
South & Southeastern Asia: 85-90 Mton –24 billion USD
Latin America: 20-25 Mtons –11 billion USD
Example cereals:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Agricultural
production
Postharvest handling
and storage
Distribution
Consumption
Total
Mtons
SSA
NA,WA&CA
S&SE Asia
LA
Volumes of waste
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Agricultural
production
Postharvest handling
and storage
Processing and
packaging
Distribution
Consumption
Total
Mtons
Europe
NA&Oce
Ind. Asia
Total:
Europe: 40-45 Mton –57 billion USD
North America & Oceania: 23-37 Mton –33 billion USD
Industrialized Asia: 90-95 Mton –29 billion USD
Example cereals:
Range of wastage
Commodity group
Total in chain (min)
Total in chain (max)
Cereals
19 % (SSA)
32% (NAm&Oce)
Oil crops and pulses
18% (Ind. Asia)
29 % (NAf, WA& CA)
Roots and tubers
33% (NAf, WA&CA)
60 % (NAm&Oce)
Fruit and vegetables
37% (Ind. Asia)
55% (NAf,WA&CA)
Meat
20% (S&SE Asia)
27% (SSA)
Fish and seafood
30% (LA)
50% (NAm&Oce)
Milk
11% (Ind.Asia)
25% (SSA)
Egg
12% (SSA)
20% (NAm&Oce)
Summary results
Commodity
group
Low income
High income
Total
Cereals
155 800
161 100
316 900
Roots &
Tubers
123 100
121 600
244 700
Oilseeds &
Pulses
31 500
11 600
43 100
Fruit &
Vegetables
221 600
270 400
492 000
Meat
20 000
40 700
60 700
Fish &
Seafood
6 700
10 700
17 400
Milk & Eggs
64 700
55 000
119 700
(1000 tons)
Poor storage facilities
©FAO/Vasily Maximov
Tajikistan: Man winnowing rice drying in the sun
Causes of food losses?
Low income countries: emphasis early in the supply chain!
•Warm/humid climate
•Rodents
•Parasites
•Fungus
Poor infrastructure and transportation,
lack of refrigeration
©SIK/Friederike Ziegler
Causes of food losses?
Low income countries: emphasis early in the supply chain!
©FAO/Diana Giampiero
Nicaragua: truck loaded with mangoes
Bangladesh: rickshaws transporting
milk from farm to processing plant
Causes of food losses?
Low income countries: emphasis early in the supply chain!
Inadequate market facilities
©FAO/O. Argenti
Pakistan: Trading of food at central market
•Unsanitary
•Crowded
•Lack of refrigeration
Poor packaging
Rwanda
©Lisa Kitinoja
Rwanda: Large basket of tomatoes
Rwanda
©SK Roy
Rwanda: Large sack of leafy greens
Causes of food losses?
Low income countries: emphasis early in the supply chain!
Causes of food waste?
High income countries: emphasis late in the supply chain!
Quality standards
©SIK
Fruit and vegetables in retail store
•Photogenic sensors
•Aestetic defects:
-Not bright orange
-Blend or blemish
-Broken
-25-30%
Causes of food waste?
High income countries: emphasis late in the supply chain!
Food manufacture
©SIK
French fries produced from potato
•Sorted out potatoes (<10%)
•Trimming scraps (2-12%)
•Sorted out french fries (1-10%)
•Transportation losses
during processing (1-10%)
Causes of food waste?
High income countries: emphasis late in the supply chain!
Poor environmental conditions during display
©SIK
Fruit and vegetables in retail store
•Poor temperature management!
- Chilling sensitive –too cold
- Heat sensitive –too warm
•Major reason for retail waste
of F&V (55%)
Causes of food waste?
High income countries: emphasis late in the supply chain!
©SIK
Fruit and vegetables in retail store
Lack of planning –limited focus on waste
•Central kitchen
•Local school kitchen
•Lack of communication/coordination
•Food could not be stored for
the next day –trade-off with food safety
Causes of food waste?
High income countries: emphasis late in the supply chain!
Best-before-dates
©SIK
Eggs
55%, UK households
Food may still be good to eat!
- Best-before-date?
-Use-by-date?
Causes of food waste?
High income countries: emphasis late in the supply chain!
Leftovers
©SIK
Leftovers from serving
42%, UK households
From:
•Cooking
•Preparing
•Serving
How to prevent food losses?
Low income countries:
- Local investments
- Education
- Cooling chain when possible
- Improved packaging
- Improved market facilities
High income countries:
- Improved communication in supply chains
- Awareness!
- Consumer power
- Improved purchase and consumption planning
- Education (best-before-dates)
How to prevent food waste?
Conclusions
- Losses are largest for Fruit &Vegetables
(percentage, volumes, financial, energy)
- Substantial gaps in knowledge, throughout
the food chain!
- Coordinated research is needed
- Reducing food losses is an important
option to increase food availability
... Food waste has been studied in the literature in terms of food waste measurement, food waste subjects and actions to reduce food waste. Food waste is mostly quantified by weighing or estimating, and the most common method is to estimate the percentage of food waste [11][12][13]. However, the results of the measure need to be further explored as there is insufficient statistical evidence on the percentage of waste data. ...
... The asymptotic stability of the equilibrium points is determined by the Lyapunov discriminant (indirect method), which first solves for the Jacobi matrix and its eigenvalues. In order to analyse the evolution and stability trend among the government, enterprises and farmers, we established the Jacobian matrix as shown in Equation (13). We obtain the eigenvalues of the Jacobi matrix by taking the first order partial derivatives of F(x), F(y) and F(z) with respect to x, y and z, respectively. ...
... At a certain point, if the eigenvalues of J are all less than 0, the equilibrium point has asymptotic stability and is an evolutionary stable point. The eigenvalues corresponding to each of the eight equilibrium points can be obtained separately by substituting them into the Jacobi matrix of Equation (13), as shown in Table 2. ...
How to Reduce Food Waste Caused by Normative Illusion? A Study Based on Evolutionary Game Model Analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2022
Reducing food waste is a priority for all sectors of society as it threatens national food security and the sustainability of global agriculture. Many studies on food waste have focused on a single subject, and the psychological factors of consumer waste are often overlooked. Based on evolutionary game theory, this paper introduces consumers’ normative illusion, constructs an evolutionary game model in which the government, caterers and consumers collaborate to reduce food waste, and simulates and analyses the behavioural strategies of the three stakeholders. The results show that: Firstly, food waste can be reduced under certain conditions by incentive-guided and punishment-inhibited policies. Moreover, incentive-guided policies can reduce government expenditures more than punishment-inhibited ones. Secondly, implementation of prior intervention, the resultant intervention and reducing the probability of consumers’ aversion to the intervention of caterers can optimise the government’s punishment-inhibited policy. Finally, under the punishment-inhibited policy, caterers can bear 60% of the prior intervention costs for food waste management. When caterers invest 40–60% of the prior intervention costs, both caterers and consumers can achieve the ideal state of cooperation; caterers can accept 40% of the resultant intervention cost for food waste management, and when the resultant intervention cost is less than 40%, consumers choose not to waste. Both caterers and consumers are involved in reducing food waste when the probability of consumer dissatisfaction with a caterer’s intervention is reduced to less than 40%.
... Food waste (FW) includes raw or cooked food that is discarded or intended or required to be discarded. Every year, around 1.3 billion tons of FW is generated worldwide, which is one-third of all the food produced for human consumption (Gustavsson et al. 2011). One potential use of FW is as an ingredient in aqua-feeds, but the concentrations of macronutrients (proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) contributed will vary depending upon the type of FW (Cheng et al. 2015;Nasser et al. 2018Nasser et al. , 2019Mo et al. 2018Mo et al. , 2019aMo et al. , 2019b. ...
Effects on growth metrics, fillet composition, and health biomarkers of juvenile striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) when commercial feed is replaced with graded levels of restaurant food waste
Article
Full-text available
Food waste (FW) is a source of inexpensive and readily available nutrients that can be used as animal feed. However, the use of FW in fish feed is limited. In this study of juvenile striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus), commercial feed (CD, 34.1% protein and 4.69% lipid based on dry weight) was replaced with graded levels (25, 50, 75, and 100%) of FW (20.3% protein and 14.9% lipid based on dry weight). The dry weight dietary contents of crude protein (32.8 to 19.9%), crude fiber (4.62 to 1.06%), and ash (9.00 to 3.32%) decreased with FW replacement levels, whereas contents of crude lipid (4.69 to 14.5%) and nitrogen-free extract (48.9 to 61.2%) increased. Fish (3.40 ± 0.01 g body weight) were assigned to five treatments, each comprising three tanks (60 cm width × 80 cm length × 45 cm height, 100 L water) containing 15 fish each. They received the experimental diets twice daily (09.00 and 16.00 h) at 3% of body weight over an 8-week feeding trial. At the end of the feeding trial, growth performance, feed utilization, digestive enzyme activities, fillet qualities, carcass composition, and hematological parameters, along with an economic analysis, were used as assessment criteria for a suitable diet. The gradual reduction in growth performance was observed as the proportion of FW increased (P < 0.05), and only the fish that received a diet containing 25% FW showed similar specific growth rates (1.60% body weight day⁻¹) and feed conversion ratios (1.37 g feed g gain⁻¹) to fish that received a diet without FW (P > 0.05). Higher replacement levels had negative effects on these parameters and increased dry matter apparent digestibility coefficients (from 74.0 to 82.2%), while reducing the protein digestibility coefficients (from 85.8 to 67.9%, P < 0.05). Activities of amylase, cellulase, pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, lipase, and the amylase to trypsin ratio were modulated differently across the dietary treatments. The diet containing 25% FW showed no adverse effects on fillet qualities, carcass composition, and hematological parameters. The cost of a diet containing 25% FW (0.71 USD kg⁻¹) was lower than the cost of the commercial feed (0.94 USD kg⁻¹), albeit not statistically significant (P > 0.05). These findings indicate that replacing 25% of commercial feed with FW could reduce feed costs and mitigate the environmental difficulties of FW disposal.
... According to the definition proposed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "food loss" is the reduction in the total weight of food intended for human consumption. [2]. Food loss starts in the early phases of the supply chain, whilst food waste occurs during distribution and consumption [3]. ...
The Management of Meals in Food Service Establishments in the Context of Food Waste—Results of Focus Group Interviews with Employees and Owners
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2022
Food waste in the food service industry is global and affects the whole world. Despite the fact that food service establishments are significant food waste producers, they have received less academic attention than other food waste producers. The aim of this paper is to analyse the methods of management of meals in food service establishments in the context of food waste. The study was carried out using a qualitative research method in the form of a focus group interview between 24 January and 3 February 2020 in four locations. Three interviews were carried out with 23 owners and three interviews with 24 employees of six types of food service establishments, e.g., restaurants, bars, etc. In the respondents’ opinion, the amount of food thrown away is not large and most often includes perishable foodstuffs and food discarded when preparing dishes. At the same time, the respondents admitted that many foodstuffs that were thrown away were fit for further use, for example, withered fruit and vegetables or products with no signs of spoilage but whose packages had been opened. To achieve a maximum reduction of wastage of dishes prepared in advance by food service outlets, greater emphasis must be placed on the cooperation between food service establishments and charitable institutions. According to the study, caterers are reluctant to officially engage in such cooperation because they have no knowledge of the current donation law, among others.
... In addition, they are rich in unsaturated fat, dietary fiber, and phytochemicals that are beneficial to health [1]. It is estimated that one-third of the world's food supply is lost owing to poor post-harvest processing practices every year [2]. In underdeveloped nations, such as Bangladesh, this loss is believed to be between 30 and 40 percent of the production [3]. ...
A Comprehensive Review of Mathematical Modeling for Drying Processes of Fruits and Vegetables
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2022
Drying fruits and vegetables is a procedure of food preservation with simultaneous heat, mass, and momentum transfer, which increases the shelf life of the food product. The aim of this review was to provide an overview of the researches on mathematical modeling for drying of fruits and vegetables with the special emphasis on the computational approach. Various heat-mass transport models, their applications, and modern drying technologies to the food industry have been reported in this study. Computational fluid dynamics, a new approach for solving heat and mass transfer problems, increases the accuracy of the predicted values. To investigate the parameters of drying needs a significant amount of time as well as costly laboratory and experimental efforts. Therefore, computational modeling could be an effective alternative to experimental approaches. This review will be beneficial for future studies in drying processes, especially for modeling, analysis, design, and optimization of food science and food engineering.
... The reduced quantity as well as quality of the food or food-based products are the result from certain decisions, plans, actions and outcome obtained from several food suppliers, food producers, and farmers that does not include food retailers, consumers, and food service providers. This phenomenon is commonly termed as food loss (Gustavsson et al., 2011;Jeno et al., 2021). Generally, from the harvest source or slaughter source the food items that are dumped, discarded, unused, and incinerated within the food supply chain is also termed as the food loss. ...
Production of bioethanol from food waste: Status and perspectives
Article
There is an immediate global requirement for an ingenious strategy for food waste conversion to biofuel in order to replace fossil fuels with renewable resources. Food waste conversion to bioethanol could lead to a sustainable process having the dual advantage of resolving the issue of food waste disposal as well as meeting the energy requirements of the increasing population. Food waste is increasing at the rate of 1.3 billion tonnes per year, considered to be one-third of global food production. According to LCA studies discarding these wastes is detritus to the environment, therefore; it is beneficial to convert the food waste into bioethanol. The CO2 emission in this process offers zero impact on the environment as it is biogenic. Among several pretreatment strategies, hydrothermal pretreatment could be a better approach for pretreating food waste because it solubilizes organic solids, resulting in an increased recovery of fermentable sugars to produce bioenergy.
... Less than 5% of research funding is accorded to it (Bourne, 1977;Greeley, 1986, Kitinoja et al., 2011and Pantenius, 1988. Gustavsson et al., (2011)report that on a global scale, about one-third of the total food produced, about 1.3-billion-tonnes worth about $1 trillion, is lost every year due to post-harvest losses. While moisture content and temperature are the most crucial abiotic factors affecting the storage life, insect pests are considered the most important among all the biotic factors and cause considerable losses in the grains (30%-40%) (Tapondjou et al., 2002;Boxall, 2001;Abbas et al., 2014). ...
Bioefficacy of Zanthoxylum acanthopodium and its Combination with Plectranthus ternifolius as a Grain Protectant against Rice Weevil, Sitophilus oryzae
Article
  • Jan 2021
The bioefficacy of Z. acanthopodium was studied as a grain protectant against rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae, alone and in combination with Plectranthus ternifolius. Rice weevil was found to be the most common and dominating insect pest of stored pulses under NE conditions. The population growth-inhibiting ability of the plant powders by way of suppressing the progeny production was evaluated. Fixed combination ratios of 50:50, 60:40, 70:30 and 80:20 of Zanthoxylum and Plectranthus were studied and evaluated. The GI 50 of all the plant powders were calculated, and Z. acanthopodium without any combination was found to have the lowest GI 50 of 3.03mg/gm. Among the combinations, Zanthoxylum and Plectranthus in 50:50 ratio gave the best population growth suppressing ability with GI 50 of 5.47mg/gm, and 80:20 ratio combination was found the least effective with GI 50 of 6.88 mg/gm. Singly or in combination, all the plant powders gave good protection against rice we evil with very low GI 50. The seeds treated with only Zanthoxylum showed a higher germination rate of 85% compared to 80% in control, while combined powders inhibited seed germination.
Advances in Integrated Management Technology of Insect Pests of Stored Grain
Chapter
  • Aug 2022
Integrated pest management technology of stored grain pests is an all-time evolving process worldwide. These pests have become the global importance due to their severity in the pre- and post-harvest periods, leading to the huge loss of grains during storage. In nature, they are cosmopolitan and present every nook and corner of this world, they have gained attention from the field to the scientists to develop strategies to overcome their problems in many countries. To tackle this issue integrated practices are to be followed from field to storage structure. At first, zestful monitoring and detection of the external and internal storage insect following various methods is the prime important factor for planning the future management tactics to be practiced. To protect the grains well in advance, several preventative measures by adopting cultural practices can be achieved, if once an infestation is confirmed the curative methods such as physical, mechanical, biological, and chemical as a last resort are used to manage the pests. As the stored grain pests are continuously developing and resulting in failure of management practices, so entomologists should involve in the constant research in designing novel techniques in order to manage and compete with insect pests to protect our produce during storage so that the global hunger can be mitigated efficiently.
YİYECEK İÇECEK SEKTÖRÜNDEYENİLEBİLİR ÇİÇEKLER VE MİKRO FİLİZLER
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Nov 2021
Birbirinden farklı özellikteki birçok bitkisel kaynaklı besin, lezzeti arttırmak, görselliği zenginleştirmek ve yemeğe hoş kokular katmak amacıyla mutfaklarda kullanılmaktadır. Yenilebilir çiçekler ve mikro filizler, dünden bugüne değişen yemek pişirme yöntemleri ve sunum şekillerine baktığımızda karşımıza çıkan en belirgin ürün gruplarıdır. Son zamanlarda oldukça ilgi gören bu ürünler, pek çok farklı tür ve özelliktedir. Çiçekler uzun yıllardır doğada var olan ve insanlığın yüzyıllardır çeşitli şekillerde faydalandığı tabiat zenginliklerindendir. Çekici renkleri, hoş kokuları, ferahlatan aromaları, estetik görünümleri ve karakteristik özellikleriyle günümüze kadar farklı amaçlarla kullanılmış ve kullanılma-ya devam etmektedir. Bu özellikleriyle çiçekler, genellikle güzellik ve sağlık alanlarında yaygın kullanımıyla ön plana çıkmaktadır. Bu konuda yazılmış kaynaklar incelendiğinde, dünya üzerinde farklı iklim koşulları ve toprak yapısına göre pek çok türde çiçeğin olduğu söylenebilir. İnsanoğlunun varoluşuyla birlikte farklı türdeki çiçeklerin çeşitli amaçlarla kullanıldığı bilinmektedir. Farklı çiçek türlerinin bu çok yönlü kullanımının insanların beslenme hayatına girmesi uzun zaman almıştır. Çiçeklerin ve diğer yenilebilir aromatik otların mutfaklara girişi yakın tarihe dayanmakta olup, çeşitli yiyecek ve içeceklerde kullanımının başlaması ile günümüze kadar taşınmıştır.
Impact of composting conditions on the nicotine degradation rate using nicotinophilic bacteria from tobacco waste
Article
In the past several decades, due to the increased population, the planet has faced immense problems with waste management. The need for recycling and upcycling is increasing. It has become imperative to extract maximum value from discarded products. There are nearly one billion smokers on the planet. Tobacco butts are toxic, and they pollute the environment. In this paper, the research objective was the bio-augmentation of waste in the context of composting tobacco and vegetable waste mixtures, and the determination of nicotine degradation rate depending on the composting conditions. Low-grade Virginia tobacco leaves that were discarded from further processing were used as base material. The experiment was conducted in triplicate. To each sample, bacteria from the species Brevibacillus were added, and then, samples were composted under different conditions (controlled, semi-controlled and non-controlled). Two more samples were formed as the control group, one without bacteria and one with only tobacco waste. The research was conducted over the period of one month with monitoring of the process parameters. The tobacco waste had a baseline nicotine level of 17,363 mg/kg. In all samples containing nicotine-degrading bacteria, the level of nicotine dropped below 10 mg/kg. There was a direct positive relationship between the rate of nicotine degradation, temperature and moisture content in the samples, as well as environmental temperature and relative humidity. The content of macro- and micronutrients makes the compost appropriate for organic fertilization in agricultural production.
GASTRODİPLOMASİ VE GASTROMİLLİYETÇİLİK
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Nov 2021
Gastronomi kavramının bilim ve turizm anlamında ivmeli gelişimi, uluslararası kültürel etkileşimi de olumlu yönde etkilemektedir. Bu kültürel etkileşim, beraberinde markalaşma ihtiyacını doğurmuş ve ülkeler yemek kültürlerindeki değerli gıda ürünlerini imajları haline dönüştürmüştür. Bu imaj sayesinde ülkeler diğer ülke insanlarını etkileyerek mutfaklarını pazarlayabilmiş ve kültürler arası bir bağ kurabilme imkânı yakalamıştır. Yemeğin temsil gücü ve kültürü yansıtması ile ulusal mutfaklar ve yemek kültürüne olan bağlılık artmıştır. (Bucak ve Yiğit, 2019). Böylelikle “gastrodiplomasi” kavramı zaman içinde ortaya çıkmaya başlamıştır. Yeme içme alışkanlıkları, yemek ve mutfak gelenekleri, milli marşlar ve bayraklar gibi milli kimliği sembolize etmektedir. Milli kimlik, vatandaşları ortak duygular etrafında birleştirmektedir. Sembolik güç ve kültürel kimlik çıkarımları söz konusu olduğunda, yemek de bir istisna değildir. Yemek, sosyal aktörler ile kültürel geçmişleri, ortak ailesel ve dini kimlik bağları ile toplumsal kimlik anlatıları arasında bağlantılar kurmaktadır. Milli duygular ile ulusa ait mutfak kültürünün korunarak güçlendirilmesini amaç edinen çalışmalar “gastromilliyetçilik” ya da “mutfak milliyetçiliği” olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır (DeSoucey, 2010). Gastromilliyetçilik ve gastrodiplomasi kavramlarının birlikte incelenmesinin temelindeki ana sebep, her iki kavramın da benzer amaçlara hizmet etmesidir. Uluslara ait mutfak kültürlerinin korunarak gelecek nesillere eksiksiz aktarılması, her çağda eski esintilerini kaybetmeden yaşatılması ve kültürel bir değer olarak markalaşması ile çekim unsuru haline getirilmesi de bahsi geçen bu ortak amaçlar arasındadır (Bucak ve Yiğit, 2019).
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.