Food Waste or Not – That is not the only Question

It is well known that plenty of food is lost and wasted along supply chain operations as well as by customers. The famous ‘rule of thumb’ figure – although a bit outdated – commonly mentioned in media and public discussion, is that one third of all food is either lost or wasted (originating from an FAO report published in 2013).

It is very interesting how much this proportion got stuck in public perception and how it steers decision-making, even more than a decade later. Consequently, related government programs or funding calls often cite lowering the absolute amount of wasted food as a main goal. However, while trying to achieve this goal in reality, two key factors lead to substantial complications: (i) the lack of high-quality food loss and waste data, and (ii) that food waste is simply not a binary question. While the first point is broadly discussed in recent reports such as the 2024 UNEP Food Waste Index Report, this post will focus on the latter complication.

Simplifying food waste to a binary (true/false) question, ignores exactly the fact what makes working in food so interesting and complex: the multifaceted nature of each individual produce and the sheer complexity of related supply chain operations. From a lay perspective one might imagine that food that does not arrive at its designed destination is ‘wasted’ or ‘lost’. However, when food cannot be sold in its regular channels to end consumer, it isn’t necessarily wasted as it can still have plenty of alternative usages for human consumption, animal feed or energy recovery (e.g., see EU Food Use and Waste hierarchy). Similarly, it makes a difference when food exactly arrives at a customer as a longer shelf life gives more flexibility and allows for better meal planning and, potentially, higher quality. Therefore, delivering products with longer shelf lives is often beneficial and possibly should be of focus rather than just making sure that food arrives before spoilage.

Both points require a drastic rethinking of related food waste measures. For instance, in recent research, we decided to explore calculating food waste in lost quality days rather than focusing if food arrives before expiration or not. Based on storage temperatures and duration, this allowed us to estimate how much picking and routing decision cause quality deterioration and how one can improve related operations.

To summarize, less food quality losses mean economic and environmental benefits as resources are spared and less land is used. Additionally, it can have a wide range of social sustainability aspects leading to better societies and a more livable future. This is of interest to various stakeholders and the avenues of research to reduce food waste in a deeper and more meaningful way are manifold. Consequently, I can only encourage everyone to go a little deeper and take a look at this interesting field. Our students at the University of Bayreuth and particularly at the Chair of Food Supply Chain Management are doing just that and are generating real impact.