SYSTEMATIZATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE CURRENT STATE OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Reducing food loss and waste across global supply chains is of utmost importance. Over recent years, researchers have investigated different approaches to support this reduction. However, these efforts often focus on sub-problems, and a holistic picture of food waste reduction measures is not extant. As a contribution to rectifying this, the authors of this study seek to unify and extend research on food waste management. Therefore, they conduct a systematic literature review on food waste reduction measures that investigates 215 studies from two different electronic databases to propose a framework for reducing food loss and waste through supply chain management. They further demonstrate that current literature predominantly focuses on mitigating waste in the later stages of the food supply chain, rather than the early stages. Recommendations for future food waste management research are given.