Perspectives on food waste management: Prevention and social innovations

Abstract

Food waste is one of the challenging issues humans are facing. A third of the food produced in the world is wasted at various points along the food supply chain. Food waste can be reduced by developing technology that can be utilized in different parts of the food value chain and through education programs that focus on consumers' behavior on healthy lifestyles and sustainable consumption. This article examines the problem of food waste and provides insights into the approaches to food waste management. Different techniques, such as education-based or structure-based, are used to encourage food waste prevention and management. Therefore, highlighting the current development in food waste management becomes important. The paper uses a systematic review that supports screening of the literature to answer the research questions and find the research gaps. According to the findings, food is either thrown out during the supply chain or even at the last stages of preparation and consumption. The review shows that the current food waste management treatment methods may be effective, but they do not provide an environmentally sustainable solution for food waste management. Therefore, the proposed article deeply investigated food waste prevention and social innovations to reduce food waste. This review complements the previous reviews by adding social and economic innovation focus on food waste management. The article recommends a course of action for future food waste management research. 2022