Loss and waste in the food supply chain: an introduction to the problem

Abstract

The problem of food waste is particularly relevant in the twenty-first century. According to the data from the Food Banks, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year around the world. This represents a third of the total food production. In Europe, there are almost 100 million tonnes and in Poland there are some 9 million tonnes per annum (Food Banks 2016). The data on Europe do not include losses in agriculture and fisheries, which, in fact, make this figure much higher. However, the scale of waste in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is much lower and there is a chronic problem of malnutrition and even starvation. As reported by UNICEF, malnutrition is the cause of death of over 5 million children annually (UNICEF 2016). It is therefore necessary to develop strategies to effectively combat this phenomenon. Such attempts are taken by the European Union, which pays attention to the problem in the strategy ‘Europe 2020’. In 2011, the European Parliament adopted a resolution ‘How to avoid food waste: a strategy for improving the efficiency of the food chain in the EU’. At the same time a large part of the EU population (including Poles) declare that they are not aware of the situation, do not notice information campaigns and programmes that aim to reduce food waste. Struggle with this twenty-first century problem should therefore start from building attitudes and awareness of individual households and firms engaged in food production and distribution. The purpose of this article is to point to the problem of food waste, its causes and manifestations, and to identify possible strategies to combat this phenomenon. Research methods used in this work include a critical literature analysis and meta-analysis with elements of deductive reasoning based on available literature and reports.