Food Loss and Waste ♻️ 🗑️

1/3 of the world's food is wasted or lost. Beyond being an ethical and moral issue, it is an environmental and economic challenge that has far-reaching impacts. The resources that go into producing, processing, and transporting the wasted food are significant including water, energy, land use and human labor. Additionally, treating wasted food generates greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts.

Food loss refers to food that is lost or spoiled before it reaches the consumer due to poor infrastructures or inadequate transportation, refrigeration, and packaging.

Food waste, on the other hand, is processed food fit for human consumption that is thrown away before or after it spoils.

In France, 10 million tons of food are wasted each year, which represents 155 kilograms per person. Nearly 20% of the food produced ends up in the trash! These wastes and losses are generated at various stages of the food supply chain: during the production (32%), the processing (21%), the distribution (14%) and the consumption (33%). Let’s walk through these stages to better understand current waste and loss mechanisms and explore ongoing initiatives working for a sustainable food chain.

Production phase 🥔

It includes the harvesting of field crops (cereals, fruits, vegetables, etc.), their sorting and final storage.

Losses and waste at field crop producer’s level is essentially linked to the following causes: the harvesting techniques, poor predictions of productions, inadequate storage and the discarding of sub standardized products. Out of all the stages in the food chain, this is the one that generates the most waste: 3.2 million tons of agricultural products are lost, which represents 4% of total production.

First, a significant part of total production is lost during harvesting. The lack of technology and precision during this phase (performance and machine settings) limits the farmers in terms of harvesting efficiency. A little upstream, harvests can be premature or delayed due to weather conditions. Also, inadequate agronomic practices (irrigation management, fertilization, seed selection, etc.) may lead to over productions of crops that will not be sold.

If some products will be left out in the fields, others are discarded directly by the producer's because they do not comply with the specifications of the distribution or processing. This is especially the case for fruits and vegetables: they may not meet certain cosmetic standards, such as having the wrong color, shape, size or simply being spoiled. The losses for fruits and vegetables are the highest during production, representing 11% of their production. Some solutions may include to get them back into the consumer market by selling these productions to restaurants or directly to the consumers.

Finally, after harvest and selection, the producer must store his products and ensure that they do not deteriorate, otherwise they will be removed a second time from sale. For instance, during this stage, some wheat may be lost due to spoilage, pests, contamination with mold, toxins or other factors. New solutions help to control the crops quality to treat them accordingly.

We can also note that livestock production has very low loss rates except for marine fisheries due to unwanted catches.

Processing phase 🏭

This phase includes handling, transport, sorting at reception, storage, and customer returns.

Losses during food processing may be due to the transformation process itself (trimming of the products, etc.), the transportation, the poor stock management and tendency of overstocking and the sorting on quality and calibration standards.

First, as said, food waste occurs during the processing stage where "trimmings" or "by-products" are generated. By-products are parts of food that are removed or separated during processing, such as vegetable peels or animal bones. They are often discarded, even though they can be used to create other food products, such as soups or stocks. In addition, processing machines may produce imperfect or damaged products, which may be rejected.

Also, food waste occurs if adequate temperatures are not maintained during transportation from the farm to the factory, or from the factory to the warehouse and retailer. Unforeseen delays can also worsen the deterioration of fresh produce or products with a limited shelf life.

Food waste is in part caused by poor stock management and overstocking during both the production and the transformation phases. This is amplified by the fact that the industry has long adopted an ‘over-production versus product shortage’ strategy to maximize service rate which naturally increases overstocking. Upcycling marketplaces are dedicated to the recovery of food industry overstocks.

Upstream, industrials must forecast their needs and optimize their orders to avoid wrong projection of their needs. Indeed, food industry manufacturers are facing increasing volatility in the quality and quantity of agricultural supplies.

Finally, many products are rejected by food retailers. 7% of the vegetables received by manufacturers will be thrown away and 8% of harvest.

Once again, for quality and calibration standards, they eliminate non-standard and out-of-specification products. Some digital or physical businesses are thus valorizing them by offering them at discounted prices to end consumers plugging directly into the food production chain.

Distribution phase 🛒

This step includes all sales channels from hypermarket to local stores.

For all distribution channels, overall losses and wastes mostly correspond to expired, spoiled and unsold products. This is essentially due to the surplus of stocks, inadequate storage as well as expiration dates that come too quickly and make the products unsellable. Approximately 3% of the products in supermarkets will be thrown away.

To begin with, distributors often face the challenge of overstocking due to two main factors: the complexity of accurately predicting demand and the inefficiency of product tracking. First, inaccurate demand forecasting can prompt retailers to frequently restock their shelves, ultimately leading to inefficiencies in inventory management. Second, one major problem stems from the lack of product tracking systems to efficiently manage their inventory, track stock movements, optimize truck loading, improve delivery accuracy, and finally optimize the display of products with the earliest expiration dates.

In addition to demand forecasting and product tracking, other challenges that food retailers may face include inadequate storage capacity, insufficient storage facilities, and misunderstandings around expiration dates. Specifically, fast perishable foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and certain types of meats and seafood, require careful handling, storage to maintain their quality and an appropriate packaging to keep it from spoiling. On average, 4% of vegetables and 6% of the fruits in stores will be thrown away, mainly due to significant conservation issues and short expiration date.

Inevitably, some products will expire before being consumed.

Consumption phase 🍽️

This final phase includes consumption in households as well as collective catering and restauration.

Individuals’ wastes

On an individual level and in many cases, large amounts of edible food are thrown away due to unorganized and excessive shopping, inadequate storage, or poor understanding and management of expiration dates. In France, it represents 30kg per inhabitant of food wasted every year, which is equivalent to one meal per week!

First, food waste at home is often caused by a lack of planning and organization. Many consumers buy food on impulse without considering how it fits into their meal plans or checking what they already have at home. This can lead to overbuying and ultimately wasting food that goes uneaten. Additionally, consumers may have a poor understanding of expiration dates and throw away food that is still safe to eat. Proper storage is also crucial in preventing food waste, as perishable items like fruits and vegetables can quickly spoil if not stored correctly.

Out of home catering wastes

42% of food waste during consumption occurs in restaurants even though only one meal out of six is eaten outside of home in France, therefore we waste four time more in collective and commercial catering. This is partly due to excessive preparation, excessive stocks, and losses generated during the preparation itself.

With high customer expectations restaurants tend to prepare more food than necessary, leading to excess waste. This is also due to the difficulty for restaurateurs to anticipate demand which also has an undeniable impact on surplus stocks.

Our thoughts at AFI 🌍

As seen, food waste arises from multiple stages in the food production chain. While there is no single solution to the problem, there are many steps that can be taken to address it and ultimately, all stakeholders should work together to address it. Nowadays, new technologies are striving to streamline their exchanges!

It is fairly interesting to note that the largest portion of waste occurs at the very last stage: consumption for about 1/3 of all food waste. On average, a French person will throw away nearly 30kg of food at home each year. This surely highlights how critical and important it is to start redefining our relationship to food as consumers in the first place. As important as it can be. New technologies alone may not be enough to limit waste and a more widespread education or cultural change in society is necessary.

Here are a few tips to start: How to track food waste?