Introduction

Food waste is ubiquitous. With a world population ofover 6 million people that needs to be fed, wastefrom the production, transport and consumption offood is inevitable. However, the current scale offood waste is so large that it appearsunsustainable. According to one of the moreconservative estimates, almost 30 per cent of foodis wasted throughout the supply chain (REFRESH,2017). Others have suggested that up to half of allfood grown is wasted (Lundqvist et al, 2008; Parfittet al, 2010). This is an incredible amount of waste,at least some of which could go to the millions ofpeople in the world who go hungry every day. To putthe level of food loss into perspective, roughly 100million tons of food is wasted annually in theEuropean Union (EU), which is enough food to feedthe hungry people throughout the world – twice(European Commission, 2017).

There are differing opinions regarding what qualifiesas food waste, and therefore there are numerousdefinitions of food waste. For example, in anoverview of food waste definitions, Parfitt andcolleagues (2010, p 3065) focus on a definitionprovided by the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO, 1981), which suggests that food wasteincludes, ‘[w]holesome edible material intended forhuman consumption, arising at any point in the foodsupply chain that is instead discarded, lost,degraded or consumed by pests.’ This definition hasbeen broadened by Stuart (2009) who argues that inaddition to what the FAO classifies as food waste,it should also include, ‘edible material that isintentionally fed to animals or is a by-product offood processing diverted away from the human food’(Parfitt et al, 2010, p 3065). This chapter adoptsthis more inclusive definition of food waste.

All conceptualisations of food waste stress that itoccurs throughout the food supply chain.Interestingly, however, food waste occurs more oftenduring the earlier stages of the supply chain inlow-income countries. The most common reasons forthis include: poor storage facilities that causespoilage and give rodents, other pests and fungusaccess to the food; poor infrastructure andtransportation; lack of refrigeration; unsanitarymarket facilities; and poor packaging (Gustavsson,2011).