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Structured evaluation of food loss and waste prevention and avoidable impacts: a simplified method

Structured evaluation of food loss and waste prevention and avoidable impacts: a simplified method
Structured evaluation of food loss and waste prevention and avoidable impacts: a simplified method

Interest in life-cycle assessment (LCA) for foodstuffs has increased over recent years. In the same period, there could also be noticed an increased focus on food losses and waste (FLW); hence the need for guidance or a method that assesses the environmental impacts of FLW when analyzing agrifood systems with the use of LCA. This study introduces a method of assessing FLW in the context of supply chain LCA through: i) calculating the impacts of the food supply chain with the associated FLW, in order to account for the overall environmental impacts; and ii) assessing the benefits of FLW prevention strategies. After the method is presented, a practical application follows. The results of this study show that this method is able to aid LCA practitioners to include FLW on their LCA for food studies so as not to underestimate the impacts. Furthermore, the method is able to aid decision makers to assess the benefits of implementing a FLW prevention action in comparison to a baseline scenario. This method has some limitations: the attributional approach, lack of guidelines on how to estimate prevention potentials, as well as lack of guidelines to estimate additional impacts due to prevention actions.

environmental evaluations, food supply chain, Food waste, food waste prevention, life-cycle assessment, life-cycle thinking
0734-242X
698-707
Cánovas Creus, A.
393edaf2-2228-499a-b962-342fd9751cbe
Bernstad Saraiva, A.
3af8cf6c-05f5-4161-aaff-330516410dab
Arruda, E. F.
8eb3bd83-e883-4bf3-bfbc-7887c5daa911
Cánovas Creus, A.
393edaf2-2228-499a-b962-342fd9751cbe
Bernstad Saraiva, A.
3af8cf6c-05f5-4161-aaff-330516410dab
Arruda, E. F.
8eb3bd83-e883-4bf3-bfbc-7887c5daa911

Cánovas Creus, A., Bernstad Saraiva, A. and Arruda, E. F. (2018) Structured evaluation of food loss and waste prevention and avoidable impacts: a simplified method. Waste Management and Research, 36 (8), 698-707. (doi:10.1177/0734242X18778779).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Interest in life-cycle assessment (LCA) for foodstuffs has increased over recent years. In the same period, there could also be noticed an increased focus on food losses and waste (FLW); hence the need for guidance or a method that assesses the environmental impacts of FLW when analyzing agrifood systems with the use of LCA. This study introduces a method of assessing FLW in the context of supply chain LCA through: i) calculating the impacts of the food supply chain with the associated FLW, in order to account for the overall environmental impacts; and ii) assessing the benefits of FLW prevention strategies. After the method is presented, a practical application follows. The results of this study show that this method is able to aid LCA practitioners to include FLW on their LCA for food studies so as not to underestimate the impacts. Furthermore, the method is able to aid decision makers to assess the benefits of implementing a FLW prevention action in comparison to a baseline scenario. This method has some limitations: the attributional approach, lack of guidelines on how to estimate prevention potentials, as well as lack of guidelines to estimate additional impacts due to prevention actions.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 11 July 2018
Keywords: environmental evaluations, food supply chain, Food waste, food waste prevention, life-cycle assessment, life-cycle thinking

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 446133
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/446133
ISSN: 0734-242X
PURE UUID: e208143c-5752-48be-a0b8-383a28aa0e3b
ORCID for E. F. Arruda: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9835-352X

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Date deposited: 21 Jan 2021 17:34
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:59

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Contributors

Author: A. Cánovas Creus
Author: A. Bernstad Saraiva
Author: E. F. Arruda ORCID iD

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