Food Loss, Food Waste, and Sustainability in Food Supply Chains

Considering that food supply chains are a major part of many discussions about sustainability, it is worrying that a lot of the food that is produced does not actually make it to consumption. This means that related environmental impacts were made in vain, while at the same time food insecurity is a main problem in many parts of the world. In this chapter, we discuss food loss and waste (FLW) in the context of sustainable supply chain management. We provide an overview of the drivers behind FLW for different supply chain stages. Subsequently, we discuss potential actions to prevent or reduce FLW in food supply chains as well as provide a brief outlook towards the future of sustainable food supply chains. Many of the FLW reduction strategies lead to the development of novel and different supply chains, dealing with redistribution of surplus food, valorization of FLW streams, management of novel processing and packaging technologies, developing intelligent pricing strategies, extending product assortments, and changing procurement practices. From an operations and supply chain perspective, these issues provide many challenges and opportunities for practitioners and researchers alike.