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Food Wastage Prevention as a Means for Saving Food

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Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation

Abstract

Food wastage is receiving much research and policy attention worldwide, especially during the past decade, due to the environmental, economic, and social implications that it is related to. Prevention of food wastage is a key factor in the battle against starvation on the global scale. If food wastage is halved globally by the year 2025, almost 1 billion more people could be fed, a number that corresponds to the expected global population growth between the years 2010 and 2025. Food wastage is generated in every sector of the food supply chain, namely, agriculture, processing, wholesales-retails, households, and food services. The contribution of each sector differs substantially due to a range of reasons dependent on the socioeconomic conditions of each country, the culture of the people, the food supply chain, the available food provisioning infrastructure, and policy. In the more developed part of the world, there is growing evidence that the contribution of the households to the food waste problem is particularly significant as the result of multiple behaviors within a household that increase the likelihood or amount of food being wasted. The aim of this chapter is to review the findings reported in peer-reviewed literature published during the past decade. Food wastage is presented in terms of: its amounts generated; its economic, social, and environmental impacts; its dependence on certain sociodemographic and behavioral factors; and finally, its placement in the waste hierarchy context. Food wastage prevention throughout the food supply chain should be among the key pillars of creating a sustainable food system.

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Abbreviations

EC:

European Commission

EPA:

US Environmental Protection Agency

EU:

European Union

FAO:

Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

FSC:

Food supply chain

GDP:

Gross domestic product

GHG:

Greenhouse gases

LCA:

Life cycle assessment

LULUCF:

Land use, land use change and forestry

MMT:

Million metric tones

UK:

United Kingdom

USA:

United States of America

USDA:

US Department of Agriculture

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Geography and Applied Economics, Harokopio University, El. Venizelou 70, 17671, Athens, Greece

    Konstadinos Abeliotis, Christina Chroni & Katia Lasaridi

Authors
  1. Konstadinos Abeliotis
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  2. Christina Chroni
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  3. Katia Lasaridi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katia Lasaridi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes & Nutritional Sci Div Sch, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

    Victor Preedy

  2. Clinical Biochemistry, University of Westminster, Westminster, United Kingdom

    Vinood B. Patel

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Abeliotis, K., Chroni, C., Lasaridi, K. (2017). Food Wastage Prevention as a Means for Saving Food. In: Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40007-5_62-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40007-5_62-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40007-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40007-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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