Missing Food, Missing Data? A Critical Review of Global Food Losses and Food Waste Data

Abstract

Food losses and food waste (FLW) have become a global concern in recent years and emerge as a priority in the global and national political agenda (e.g., with Target 12.3 in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). A good understanding of the availability and quality of global FLW data is a prerequisite for tracking progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts, and exploring mitigation strategies for FLW. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past years; however, significant challenges remain, such as data inconsistency and a narrow temporal, geographical, and food supply chain coverage. In this paper, we examined 202 publications which reported FLW data for 84 countries and 52 individual years from 1933 to 2014. We found that most existing publications are conducted for a few industrialized countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the United States), and over half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties in the existing global FLW database. Despite these uncertainties, existing data indicate that per-capita food waste in the household increases with an increase of per-capita GDP. We believe that more consistent, in-depth, and primary-data-based studies, especially for emerging economies, are badly needed to better inform relevant policy on FLW reduction and environmental impacts mitigation.

Does on-farm food loss prevent waste? Insights from California produce growers

“…In the U.S. and other developed countries, most of the attention on food loss and waste has focused on the processing, retail, and consumer levels rather than on the farm (Alexander et al, 2017;Buzby, Wells, & Hyman, 2014;Dou et al, 2016;van der Werf & Gilliland, 2017;Xue et al, 2017). Yet numerous studies indicate that significant quantities of food are discarded or diverted at the farm level, particularly in the arena of fresh produce (WRAP, 2011;Gunders, 2012;Brautigam et al, 2014 Nennich, 2016;Alexander et al 2017;WRAP, 2017).…”

Analysis Framework of China’s Grain Production System: A Spatial Resilience Perspective

“…In the process of urbanization, human diet and consumption habits have increased the burden to the GPS and the eco-environment. The high-calorie food demand system should be changed [117] and the introduction of a fine management of the food supply system, and an accompanied reduction of food waste has become an important part of the optimization of GPS resilience [8].…”

“…Changes in the dietary and consumption structures of urban-rural residents in the process of urbanization resulted in a decline of the grain demand and an increased requirement for quality [6,7]. Therefore, protecting food security should focus not only on production, but also on retail and consumption [8,9]. In conclusion, research on food security in China has stepped into a completely new field and category [10,11].…”

Opportunities and Challenges in Conducting Economic Research on Food Loss and Waste

“…We also encourage economists to exercise caution when adopting FLW estimates from secondary sources. In a review of over 200 publications that estimate FLW, Xue et al (2017) found that only 20% of studies relied on direct measurement of FLW from first-hand data collection; the majority of the remaining studies applied FLW estimates from previous studies, often to a new context. Further, studies that relied on secondary data could often be traced back to a handful of seminal papers that provided early FLW estimates (Xue et al 2017).…”