Effectiveness and efficiency of food-waste prevention policies, circular economy, and food industry
According to the World Food Organization about one third of produced food is lost every year on the way from the field to the plate. This level of waste is not only irresponsible from an ethical and social point of view, but also represents a considerable loss of natural resources that are necessary for the production and processing of food. Against this background the discussion on food-waste prevention has been gaining worldwide attention over the years and a number of tangible and effective actions on food-waste prevention have been taken in recent years. Little is known about the achieved results in terms of prevented food waste and especially with regard to potential cost savings. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the approaches taken to conduct economic assessments of food-waste prevention efforts in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries and to identify good practices in this area. Three examples of good practice for the analysis of economic benefits of food-waste prevention are presented, showing that there is a lack of methodological guidance in this area. This chapter looks at food-waste prevention from a circular economy policy perspective.
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