The production of food waste covers all the food life cycle: from agriculture, up to industrial manufacturing and processing, retail and household consumption. In developed countries, 42% of food waste is produced by households, while 39% losses occur in the food manufacturing industry, 14% in food service sector and remaining 5% in retail and distribution. Increasingly, industrial ecology concepts such as cradle to cradle and circular economy are considered leading principle for eco-innovation, aiming at "zero waste economy" in which waste are used as raw material for new products and applications. The large amount of waste produced by the food industry, in addition to being a great loss of valuable materials, also raises serious management problems, both from the economic and environmental point of view. Many of these residues, however, have the potential to be reused into other production systems, trough e.g. biorefineries. The present work focuses on the use of food waste coming from food manufacturing (FWm). Through extensive literature review, the authors present feasibility and constraints of applying industrial symbiosis in recovering waste from food processing, focusing on recycling (excluding energy recovery) of the solid and liquid waste from food processing industry. The main uses of functional ingredients derived from this transformation are presented and discussed, highlighting mainstream sectors of application, e.g. in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry.

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Life cycle thinking is increasingly seen as a key concept for ensuring a transition towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns. As food production systems and consumption patterns are among the leading drivers of impacts on the environment, it is important to assess and improve food-related supply chains as much as possible. Over the years, life cycle assessment has been used extensively to assess agricultural systems and food processing and manufacturing activities, and compare alternatives "from field to fork" and through to food waste management. Notwithstanding the efforts, several methodological aspects of life cycle assessment still need further improvement in order to ensure adequate and robust support for decision making in both business and policy development contexts. This paper discusses the challenges for life cycle assessment arising from the complexity of food systems, and recommends research priorities for both scientific development and improvements in practical implementation. In summary, the intrinsic variability of food production systems requires dedicated modelling approaches, including addressing issues related to: the distinction between technosphere and ecosphere; the most appropriate functional unit; the multi-functionality of biological systems; and the modelling of the emissions and how this links with life cycle impact assessment. Also, data availability and interpretation of the results are two issues requiring further attention, including how to account for consumer behaviour.

Food consumption is amongst the main drivers of environmental impacts. On one hand, there is the need\ud to fulfil a fundamental human need for nutrition, and on the other hand this poses critical threats to the\ud environment. In order to assess the environmental impact of food consumption, a lifecycle assessment\ud (LCA)-based approach has been applied to a basket of products, selected as being representative of EU\ud consumption. A basket of food products was identified as representative of the average food and\ud beverage consumption in Europe, reflecting the relative importance of the products in terms of mass and\ud economic value. The products in the basket are: pork, beef, poultry, milk, cheese, butter, bread, sugar,\ud sunflower oil, olive oil, potatoes, oranges, apples, mineral water, roasted coffee, beer and pre-prepared\ud meals. For each product in the basket, a highly disaggregated inventory model was developed based\ud on a modular approach, and built using statistical data. The environmental impact of the average food\ud consumption of European citizens was assessed using the International Reference Life Cycle Data System\ud (ILCD) methodology. The overall results indicate that, for most of the impact categories, the consumed\ud foods with the highest environmental burden are meat products (beef, pork and poultry) and dairy\ud products (cheese, milk and butter). The agricultural phase is the lifecycle stage that has the highest\ud impact of all the foods in the basket, due to the contribution of agronomic and zootechnical activities.\ud Food processing and logistics are the next most important phases in terms of environmental impacts, due\ud to their energy intensity and the related emissions to the atmosphere that occur through the production\ud of heat, steam and electricity and during transport. Regarding the end-of-life phase, human excretion and\ud wastewater treatments pose environmental burdens related to eutrophying substances whose environmental\ud impacts are greater than those of the agriculture, transports and processing phases. Moreover,\ud food losses which occur throughout the whole lifecycle, in terms of agricultural/industrial and domestic\ud food waste, have also to be taken into consideration, since they can amount to up to 60% of the initial\ud weight of the food products. The results of the study go beyond the mere assessment of the potential\ud impacts associated with food consumption, as the overall approach may serve as a baseline for testing\ud eco-innovation scenarios for impact reduction as well as for setting targets

Purpose Sustainability Science (SS) is considered an emerging discipline, applicative and solution-oriented whose aim is to handle environmental, social and economic issues in light of cultural, historic and institutional perspectives. The challenges of the discipline are not only related to better identifying the problems affecting sustainability but to the actual transition towards solutions adopting an integrated, comprehensive and participatory approach. This requires the definition of a common scientific paradigm in which integration and interaction amongst sectorial disciplines is of paramount relevance. In this context, life cycle thinking (LCT) and, in particular, life cycle-based methodologies and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) may play a crucial role. The paper illustrates the main challenges posed to sustainability assessment methodologies and related methods in terms of ontology, epistemology and methodology of SS. The aims of the analysis are twofold: (1) to identify the main features of methodologies for sustainability assessment and (2) to present key aspects for the development of robust and comprehensive sustainability assessment. Methods The current debate on SS addressing ontological, epistemological and methodological aspects has been reviewed, leading to the proposal of a conceptual framework for SS. In addition, a meta-review of recent studies on sustainability assessment methodologies and methods, focusing those life cycle based, supports the discussion on the main challenges for a comprehensive and robust approach to sustainability assessment. Starting from the results of the meta-review, we identified specific features of sustainable development-oriented methods: firstly, highlighting key issues towards robust methods for SS and, secondly, capitalising on the findings of each review’s paper. For each issue, a recommendation towards a robust sustainability assessment method is given. Existing limitations of sectorial academic inquiries and proposal for better integration and mainstreaming of SS are the key points under discussion. Discussion In the reviewed papers, LCT and its basic principles are acknowledged as relevant for sustainability assessment. Nevertheless, LCT is not considered as a reference approach in which other methods could also find a place. This aspect has to be further explored, addressing the lack of multi-disciplinary exchange and putting the mainstreaming of LCT as a priority on the agenda of both life cycle assessment and sustainability assessment experts. Crucial issues for further developing sustainability assessment methodologies and methods have been identified and can be summarised as follows: holistic and system wide approaches, shift from multi- towards trans-disciplinarity; multi-scale (temporal and geographical) perspectives; and better involvement and participation of stakeholders. Conclusions Those are also the main challenges posed to LCSA in terms of progress of ontology, epistemology and methodology in line with the progress of SS. The life...

Highlights A systematized food waste accounting at macro scale level was developed for Europe. The accounting follows Mass Flow Analysis concepts, ensuring closed mass balance. Disaggregated values per food supply chain stages and per food groups are presented. Hotspots and food groups with higher share of food waste were identified. The stage contributing the most to food waste varies depending on the food group.

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