Importance of sustainable operations in food loss: evidence from the Belgian food processing industry

Manoj Dora (), Joshua Wesana (), Xavier Gellynck (), Nitin Seth (), Bidit Dey () and Hans Steur ()
Additional contact information
Manoj Dora: Brunel University London
Joshua Wesana: Ghent University
Xavier Gellynck: Ghent University
Nitin Seth: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
Bidit Dey: Brunel University London
Hans Steur: Ghent University

Annals of Operations Research, 2020, vol. 290, issue 1, No 4, 47-72

Abstract: Abstract There are numerous studies on food loss on the demand side examining consumer behavior towards food choice and food waste generation at the household level. In this paper, we target food loss on the supply side, with a focus on the industrial food processing environment. More specifically, we map food loss in each processing stage, that is sustainable operations. Primary data were conducted through a survey (complemented with observations and documentary analysis) in 47 food processing companies in Belgium to identify hotspots and quantify food loss. The findings show that processing is by far the most important food loss hotspot. While transportation, changeover, interrupted production, human errors and product effects at this stage often lead to substantial or excessive losses, causes of food loss during packaging and before or after production have a smaller impact. At subsector level, however, there are substantial differences with respect to the most important causes. The originality of this research can be evaluated in three ways: one, identifying hotspots of food loss in the industrial processing environment; two, measuring the magnitude of losses across different product categories and causes and three, how sustainable operations plays a significant role in food loss prevention.

Keywords: Food loss; Sustainable operations; Hotspots; Food processing companies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10479-019-03134-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:annopr:v:290:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-019-03134-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10479

DOI: 10.1007/s10479-019-03134-0

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of Operations Research is currently edited by Endre Boros

More articles in Annals of Operations Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().