A Review of Household Food Waste Generation during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The topic of the current study potentially brings a huge intention from academics and practitioners. However, a few things need to be changed and revised.
1. please specify why reviewing the selected topic (household food waste) is necessary. The current manuscript explains that food waste management is needed due to the current status (COVID-19.). However, it does not justify the need for the current study.
2. please provide any form of figures/tables to describe the study framework/design so that readers can easily understand the review process (paper select/review/etc.
3. some tables explaining the previous studies are repetitive from the text. Please synthesize and provide insights from the papers, not merely summarize and report the results from each study.
4. The conclusion is relatively weak and needs to be further strengthened. What can we learn from the study? What are some implications?
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for the opportunity to review the manuscript entitled “A review of household food waste generation during the COVID-19 pandemic”, submitted for possible publication to Sustainability. The manuscript undertakes a literature review to determine the state of household food wasting during the pandemic by analyzing 41 articles and provides interesting insights. On average, it appears that the average food waste per week during the pandemic is approx. 0.91 kg, of which 0.40 kg are avoidable food waste and 0.51 kg are unavoidable. In the light of the need to measure food waste and understand determinants and drivers towards its minimization, the research is remarkable and attractive.
“Introduction” could be improved by identifying the main economic, social and environmental consequences of food waste. It could strengthen the theoretical background of the research and let readers understand the importance of conducing the present research. Could you please include a brief paragraph, which provides global (and local) statistics and facts related to food waste consequences? For instance, the global estimate amount, the associated water and energy consumption, the CO2eq emissions, etc. Here are some references, which could help implementing such a short paragraph.
Hayashi, A., Homma, T., Akimoto, K. (2022). The potential contribution of food wastage reductions driven by information technology on reductions of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Japan. Environmental Challenges, 8, 100588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100588
Campoy-Muñoz, P., Cardenete, M.A., Delgado, M.C. (2017). Economic impact assessment of food waste reduction on European countries through social accounting matrices. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 122, 202-209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.02.010
Bux, C., Amicarelli, V. (2022). Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) to enhance environmental entrepreneurship in the meat sector: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Environmental Management, 313, 115001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115001
In the light of the proposed research questions (LL. 55-60), could the authors please provide some more details related to their development? For instance, by stressing the need to measure food waste under quantitative and qualitative perspective. Here are some references, which could help you stressing the importance of food waste measurement towards its minimization.
The section “Materials and Methods” could be improved. LL. 80-86 could express the reasons for the choice of the selected keywords and the research strings. Further, although the authors declare that “no inclusion or exclusion criteria” have been set for the research, I would propose the application of the PRISMA model, to make the research more systematic. Please, try to highlight the subsequent steps: (i) identification (i.e., search process); (ii) duplicates removal; (iii) screening; and (iv) inclusion. It is important to specify how the authors have selected the 41 studies out of the 343 yielded articles. Here is a step-by-step application of the PRISMA model in systematic literature reviews, which you could follow:
Rana, R.L., Bux, C., Lombardi, M. (2022). Trends in scientific literature on the environmental sustainability of the artichoke (Cynara cardunculus L. spp) supply chain. British Food Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2022-0571
If possible, I would include a brief bibliographic analysis of the selected articles, namely publishing year, publishing journals, etc.
LL. 77-78. The authors declares that articles have been selected independently on the methodologies applies to measure food waste. However, it seems that solely articles applying direct measurement approach have been included in the review (LL. 106-107). Could you please specify such a step in the “Materials and Methods” section? Further, before presenting the in-depth results, is it possible to list the selected articles according to the measuring methods used (e.g., direct measurement, surveys, diaries, interviews, etc.)? It could help summarize all selected articles and provide an overview of the research. Also, it is important considering that “direct measurement” encompasses weighing and other possible alternatives, hence it could be interesting to specify it. For further details (and definitions) related to the different measurement methods, please read the Commission Delegated Decision (UE) 1597/2019 of 3 May 2019 supplementing Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a common methodology and minimum quality requirements for the uniform measurement of levels of food waste.
Last, I would include some more discussion on theoretical and managerial implications of food waste measurement. Under the theoretical perspective, for example, I would discuss the suitability of one measurement method compared to another. Under the managerial implication, I would discuss possible reduction strategies as the household’s level.
Thank you and good luck with your revisions. I look forward to reading the revised version of the manuscript.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The article is very interesting. My only suggestion would be to compare the official results of those involved in the collection and separation of waste, as a complement to the literature review carried out.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
In the paper titled, A review of household food waste generation during the COVID-19 pandemic and making me a reviewer. This paper presents and summarises the current research on the state of household food waste during pandemic circumstances (the quantity and composition of household food waste and changes in the quantity and/or composition of household food waste), discussing 41 articles that reported on the generation of household food waste during COVID-19, from various geographical and cultural contexts. In my opinion, this article presents a review and highlights current research on the amount of food waste in households, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with limited contribution to the literature. The paper requires reflection in accordance with the comments that came to my mind after reading it. While reading the text of the article, I noticed a few aspects that could improve the proposed manuscript and the discussion of the reviewed research. These are of minor significance, and I encourage the author’/’s to introduce these minor revisions. I believe that the elements outlined in the comments are important, and addressing them would help dispel any doubts related to the findings of the study. I sincerely hope you will find these helpful in improving your manuscript.
These aspects (suggesting minor revisions) are as follows:
- The review of the literature, used here as a research method, should be more critical and less narrative. The findings of the study are more descriptive than revealing. What theoretical contributions did your findings make to the literature? I am fairly sceptical about the results and the contribution of the study.
- Connecting to the first comment, I wonder how much we can learn from the present enquiry? It is not clear how this result can help customers identify factors that produce less or more food waste during dangerous and unstable times under unusual circumstances. The same question applies to industry professionals and municipal waste managers. The theoretical and practical implications of the study should be highlighted.
- How do the conclusions described in the article enrich the conclusions driven from 41 papers studied? What are they revealing? What was discovered as a novelty? That issue can be discussed in the Discussion of the results, which now is hidden in chapters 4 and 5.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
appreciate your hard work while addressing reviewers comments. i am thinking that the paper is now ready for publication.
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for the opportunity to review the revised version of the manuscript entitled “A review of household food waste generation during the COVID-19 pandemic”. The authors have substantially revised the manuscript according to the reviewer’s suggestions, above all by enhancing the section “Introduction” and the section “Materials and methods”. The authors have clarified the application of the PRISMA model and have added some more theoretical and empirical discussion. At current, I can confidentially suggest its acceptance for publication in Sustainability.
