New Multidisciplinary Approaches for Reducing Food Waste in Agribusiness Supply Chains

Dear Colleagues,

It is well known that food waste has huge social, economic, and environmental impacts (Chauhan et al., 2021; Schanes et al., 2018). Social impacts arise because a significant proportion of the world population suffer from hunger while others waste food (Jeswani et al., 2021). Economic impacts arise because everyone in food supply chains (food producers/manufacturers, supply chain partners, supermarkets, and households) can improve their own financial bottom line via (i) increased revenue and (ii) reduced waste-disposal costs by reducing food waste. Environmental impacts, meanwhile, arise in at least three ways. Nearly 8% of GHG emissions occur via the food waste that ends up in landfill. Significant resources (energy, labour, fertiliser, water, and more) that went into the production of the food are wasted if the food becomes a waste (Chen et al., 2020). There is also an indirect link between food waste and soil erosion due to the resource-intensive nature of food production. Hence, the importance of reducing food waste has been well recognized by all stakeholders. This is evidenced by both previous and current Special Issues in Sustainability devoted to this topic. Given the growing importance and the urgency of reducing food waste, we propose another Special Issue in this area, using a multi-disciplinary perspective.

There is growing need to increase food availability to feed the world’s growing population. The easiest way to improve food availability is by reducing food waste as it will provide a ‘win-win’ strategy for nutrition security and sustainability, and reduce hunger (Chen et al., 2020). Several sustainable development goals (SDGs) will be achieved directly or indirectly by reducing food waste. Countries around the world are making conscious efforts aimed at reducing food waste by 50% in the next few years, before 2030.

Food waste can occur in any part of the supply chain—from production, to food processing, to supply chains, and to consumers. Several so-called “low-hanging fruits” for reducing food waste have already been implemented. We currently need more sophisticated and integrated approaches for reducing food waste. Given the tremendous developments in digital technologies (internet of things sensors, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, smartphone apps, etc.), newer, multi-disciplinary solutions are becoming available and can be exploited to help reduce and combat food waste.

Given this background, we invite authors across the world to develop new multi-disciplinary approaches for reducing food waste in agribusiness supply chains. We interpret agribusiness supply chains broadly to include food production, processing, distribution and final consumption; studies on any of these topics may contribute to this Special Issue. Moreover, given the focus on multi-disciplinarity, we request that contributions involve at least two different fields of expertise (such as plant sciences and business, plant sciences and sensors, sensors and data analytics in agribusinesses, or behavioural issues, policies, regulations and business). Please note that this is not an exhaustive list.

We invite contributions involving qualitative, quantitative, mixed, and/or modelling approaches to tackle the food waste problem. We welcome papers that are deemed theoretical, empirical, computational, or model- or application-oriented. The Special Issue will seek papers that examine applications, impact, and implications of multi-disciplinary approaches for reducing food waste. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Barriers and facilitators for agribusiness supply chains in reducing food waste;
• The link between food waste and circular economy approaches;
• Understanding patterns of, and solutions to, food waste in various cultural contexts;
• Innovative applications of multi-disciplinary approaches;
• Social and ethical issues;
• Life cycle assessment and technology assessment;
• Accounting, policy and legal aspects;
• Stakeholder benefits and business models;
• Computational and behavioural challenges;
• Adaptability of the technology solutions developed in crisis situations to normal times;
• Collaboration or network in supply chains to reduce food waste;
• Sustainability supportive policies and regulations in agri-food supply chains;
• Traceability and IoT to combat food waste.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

1. Chauhan, C., Dhir, A., Akram, M. U., & Salo, J. (2021). Food loss and waste in food supply chains. A systematic literature review and framework development approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 295, 126438.
2. Chen, C., Chaudhary, A., & Mathys, A. (2020). Nutritional and environmental losses embedded in global food waste. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 160, 104912.
3. Jeswani, H. K., Figueroa-Torres, G., & Azapagic, A. (2021). The extent of food waste generation in the UK and its environmental impacts. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 26, 532-547.
4. Schanes, K., Dobernig, K., & Gözet, B. (2018). Food waste matters-A systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications. Journal of cleaner production, 182, 978-991.

Prof. Dr. Ramakrishnan Ramanathan
Prof. Dr. Yanqing Duan
Prof. Dr. Joan Condell
Prof. Dr. Usha Ramanathan
Dr. Tahmina Ajmal
Guest Editors

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• food waste
• case studies
• qualitative
• quantitative
• modelling
• multi-disciplinarity
• agribusiness supply chains
• circular economy