Tools and Techniques for Food Security and Sustainability Related Assessments: A focus on the Data and Food Waste Management System

Abstract

Achieving global food security requires addressing series of challenges, from food waste accumulation in the food supply chain (FSC) to tackling the gender disparities and climate-related concerns to promote sustainable consumption and production practices at several stages of the FSC. The paper presents a macroscopic review on several tools and techniques for improved decision making in food security-related projects focusing on areas of food waste management for circular food supply chain and for proper information management systems to tackle the prevalent challenges. Food waste prevention measures are also discussed covering all the three sustainability pillars. Food waste prevention strategies are effective in reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and are considered effective in food waste treatment than the conventional food waste reduction practices. Food waste management and information management systems are regarded as a cross-cutting argument of high relevance for food sustainability-related research and policy implementation. The results show that the study conducted can stay as the basis for developing customizable toolkits and methodologies for region-specific food security and sustainability related challenges.