Resumé
Food losses and food waste (FLW) have become a global concern in recent years and emerge as a priority in the global and national political agenda (e.g., with Target 12.3 in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). A good understanding of the availability and quality of global FLW data is a prerequisite for tracking progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts, and exploring mitigation strategies for FLW. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past years; however, significant challenges remain, such as data inconsistency and a narrow temporal, geographical, and food supply chain coverage. In this paper, we examined 202 publications which reported FLW data for 84 countries and 52 individual years from 1933 to 2014. We found that most existing publications are conducted for a few industrialized countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the United States), and over half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties in the existing global FLW database. Despite these uncertainties, existing data indicate that per-capita food waste in the household increases with an increase of per-capita GDP. We believe that more consistent, in-depth, and primary-data-based studies, especially for emerging economies, are badly needed to better inform relevant policy on FLW reduction and environmental impacts mitigation.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Environmental Science and Technology |
| Vol/bind | 51 |
| Udgave nummer | 12 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 6618-6633 |
| ISSN | 0013-936X |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2017 |
Fingeraftryk
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Missing Food, Missing Data? A Critical Review of Global Food Losses and Food Waste Data. / Xue, Li; Liu, Gang; Parfitt, Julian; Liu, Xiaojie; Van Herpen, Erica; Stenmarck, Åsa; O'Connor, Clementine; Östergren, Karin; Cheng, Shengkui.
I: Environmental Science and Technology, Bind 51, Nr. 12, 2017, s. 6618-6633.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Review › Forskning › peer review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Missing Food, Missing Data? A Critical Review of Global Food Losses and Food Waste Data
AU - Xue, Li
AU - Liu, Gang
AU - Parfitt, Julian
AU - Liu, Xiaojie
AU - Van Herpen, Erica
AU - Stenmarck, Åsa
AU - O'Connor, Clementine
AU - Östergren, Karin
AU - Cheng, Shengkui
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Food losses and food waste (FLW) have become a global concern in recent years and emerge as a priority in the global and national political agenda (e.g., with Target 12.3 in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). A good understanding of the availability and quality of global FLW data is a prerequisite for tracking progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts, and exploring mitigation strategies for FLW. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past years; however, significant challenges remain, such as data inconsistency and a narrow temporal, geographical, and food supply chain coverage. In this paper, we examined 202 publications which reported FLW data for 84 countries and 52 individual years from 1933 to 2014. We found that most existing publications are conducted for a few industrialized countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the United States), and over half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties in the existing global FLW database. Despite these uncertainties, existing data indicate that per-capita food waste in the household increases with an increase of per-capita GDP. We believe that more consistent, in-depth, and primary-data-based studies, especially for emerging economies, are badly needed to better inform relevant policy on FLW reduction and environmental impacts mitigation.
AB - Food losses and food waste (FLW) have become a global concern in recent years and emerge as a priority in the global and national political agenda (e.g., with Target 12.3 in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). A good understanding of the availability and quality of global FLW data is a prerequisite for tracking progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts, and exploring mitigation strategies for FLW. There has been a growing body of literature on FLW quantification in the past years; however, significant challenges remain, such as data inconsistency and a narrow temporal, geographical, and food supply chain coverage. In this paper, we examined 202 publications which reported FLW data for 84 countries and 52 individual years from 1933 to 2014. We found that most existing publications are conducted for a few industrialized countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the United States), and over half of them are based only on secondary data, which signals high uncertainties in the existing global FLW database. Despite these uncertainties, existing data indicate that per-capita food waste in the household increases with an increase of per-capita GDP. We believe that more consistent, in-depth, and primary-data-based studies, especially for emerging economies, are badly needed to better inform relevant policy on FLW reduction and environmental impacts mitigation.
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.7b00401
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.7b00401
M3 - Review
VL - 51
SP - 6618
EP - 6633
JO - Environmental Science & Technology (Washington)
JF - Environmental Science & Technology (Washington)
SN - 0013-936X
IS - 12
ER -