A Systems Approach to Food Loss and Solutions: Understanding Practices, Causes, and Indicators

Monika Verma, Christine Plaisier, Coen P. A. van Wagenberg and Thom Achterbosch
Additional contact information
Monika Verma: Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen University and Research, 2595 BM Den Haag, The Netherlands
Christine Plaisier: Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen University and Research, 2595 BM Den Haag, The Netherlands
Coen P. A. van Wagenberg: Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen University and Research, 2595 BM Den Haag, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: Reasons behind food loss can be very specific for each product and supply chain stage but it is also affected by factors independent of the product and stage. This work focuses on such generic factors and develops a framework to analyze food loss as a systemic outcome. The framework highlights the interconnected nature of problem across supply chain stages and therefore emphasizes the need to look at the whole system instead of specific stages, when proposing solutions. Practices and underlying causes contributing to food loss are identified for each stage of the supply chain using a literature search. Deductive logic is used to fill the gaps where literature was found to be scarce, and to derive socio-economic indicators that signal the presence of identified causes. Using this framework, we propose a non-exhaustive list of 30 socio-economic indicators, which can signal the presence of the 22 practices and 60 causes associated with food loss in supply chains. This list can serve as a starting list for practitioners and policymakers to build on when analyzing food losses in supply chains in their region. We evaluate the framework using a field-study of a tomato supply chain in Nigeria, and conclude that it can be a useful tool to identify practices, causes, and indicators of food loss.

Keywords: systems approach; conceptual framework; food loss practices; food loss causes; food loss solutions; supply-chain stages; literature; socio-economic indicators; tomato; Nigeria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/579/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/579/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:579-:d:200017

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().