The household simulation model - Investigation of innovations to reduce meat and dairy food waste

Abstract

Food waste is now acknowledged as an issue of global importance, with households generating more food waste than any other source in high- and middle-income countries. There are many possible solutions to reduce the amount of food wasted by households, but measurement of solutions’ impact is costly and so the effectiveness of these solutions remains uncertain. This is a major barrier to empowering decision makers across the food system to adopt the most effective solutions. Discrete event simulation is ideally placed to overcome these problems.
In this poster, we present the Household Simulation Model (HHSM), a discrete event simulation focusing on understanding household food waste. The HHSM provides the flexibility to model a range of food items, and includes many household dynamics that can affect food waste (e.g. purchasing, storage, consumption). The HHSM can simulate a range of household types to reflect the diversity of the UK population. The additional novelty of the HHSM is that the dynamics are informed and validated with findings from social science (e.g. anthropological) studies. To show the potential of the HHSM, we present the findings related to reducing the household food waste of meat and dairy products.

Full text

The household simulation model -
Investigation of innovations to reduce meat
and dairy food waste
Cansu Kandemir*1, Christian J. Reynolds*1, Tom Quested2, Karen Fisher2, Estelle Herszenhorn2, Rachel
Devine3
 !"#$%&'()$&'(!"*&
+,-!
Introduction
.,,,/,
    ,      
      /  
     , /  /  
0       1   
2/,
        1  3
/4
5   ,   +  6 )++ 6 
       
,++ 678/
1,)
    ++ 6     
   7     !  
    ++ 6       
,9)
 ,     ++ 6 ,   9  
,
Food Waste - a global problem
'8,
  2      / 
:1 , ,  ; 
          
 ,      
     . #<<4  #<= /4   
,4;><?4@+@5/
,,,/
 'A) 9$&5
 9 : /      
,/):
/

5       
/       ,  +,  
   ,     ,  
   ++.$       , 
: ,  /    
/
) 9B)#<*
The main reasons for this slow progress of food waste reduction
are related to the cost of measuring the eect on food waste of
dierent interventions to reduce food waste. C,
,/
    D  ;  / 
  ,   /   
E04@         
/  5   , /  ,

Acknowledgments &,
/  C %  & A 5 '
)(2 : F  + . $: ' & 
( G  $&'( A &    
+C.AC A H> '. & ( 
    H>    A
&HC&A   5
(   $  & ' ( )$&'(
)@&:HCI&<<J=<I
Proportion of 2012 wasted food from
households split by reasons for
discarding, by weight )$&'(#<>
In%uences on food waste )B#<*KL4
Food waste, the third largest emitter of
greenhouse gas )$&5#<L
Results
C    1     
 /       ,
&     !  9
11,1
1
Chicken
*>?)#=<<<,
/
Bacon
=?)K#<<</,/

Hard Cheese
=M?)#K<<<,/

The household simulation model )++ 6,
/'&CH'  ,L4

        
C$&'( /,D
,
Further Reading – . ! +D C + 6 % B  )#<M
+C-(5H@ ANH 6C&  &C3AC .NN3 $' C +&N@+ OCC& -'OC--5H@ 'H3
(&N3AA+'H@C $&'(:O/