Definition
- Food loss:
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It is the amount of edible food, postharvest, that is available for human consumption but is not consumed because of cooking loss; natural shrinkage; loss from mold, pest, or poor storage; and plate waste. In other words, it refers to a decrease in mass (dry matter) or nutritional value (quality) of food that was intended for human consumption. The loss occurs from inefficiencies in the food supply chains, such as poor infrastructure and logistics, lack of technology, insufficient skills, knowledge and management capacity of stakeholders, and lack of access to market (FAO 2013).
- Food waste:
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It is the type of food loss that occurs when an edible item goes unconsumed, such as food thrown out by retailers because they are of undesirable color or wrong size and plate waste by consumers. Or food appropriate for human consumption is discarded, whether or not after it is kept beyond its expiry date or left to spoil. Food spoilage can happen from reasons such as...
References
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Stuart T (2009) Waste: uncovering the global food scandal. W.W. Norton, New York
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UNEP (2018) Save. http://www.thinkeatsave.org/index.php/about/save-tips
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Further Reading
Stuart T (2009) Waste: uncovering the global food scandal. W.W. Norton, New York
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Roka, K. (2019). Environmental and Social Impacts of Food Waste. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71062-4_17-1
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