Dealing With Food Waste in the Supply Chain

Food wastage occurs at every point in the supply chain: production, shipping, storing, packaging, distribution, retail, and consumption. Early supply chain food loss, at the production through retail stages, tends to stem from low-income countries lacking access to the advanced technologies needed to curb loss and waste. For countries with medium- to high-income levels, food wastage typically materializes at the retail and consumer levels. At a time when more than 190 million people experience acute food insecurity and 1.6 billion tons of food is either lost or wasted every year, there is a dire need for industry to implement viable waste solutions. Fixing the Fragmented Supply Chain As the food supply moves through often disparate and weak linkages of the chain, it’s crucial to monitor chemical degradation. When incorrect or incomplete information about a food product is passed from one intermediary to another, the likelihood of loss and wastage increases significantly.