Consortium for Innovation in Post-Harvest Loss & Food Waste Reduction

Food loss and waste (FLW) is a global problem that negatively impacts businesses and farmers, wastes limited resources, and damages the environment. Globally, on average an estimated 1/3^rd of food produced for humans is wasted. More than 40% of fruits and vegetables in lower income countries spoil before they are consumed. The environmental impact of food loss and waste is significant because increasingly scarce resources such as land and water are used to produce goods that are eventually wasted. Costs are incurred in producing food, and wastage therefore means economic losses for all actors involved in the specific food chains, from farmers to processors to retailers and consumers.

Paradoxically, many people face food scarcity, and food and nutrition security for all is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Reducing food loss and waste can contribute to enhancing food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable by increasing the amounts of produced food that reaches consumers in good quality and is not wasted.

International consortium

A Consortium for Innovations to reduce Post-Harvest Loss & Food Waste is established with the following global partners: The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, The Rockefeller Foundation, Iowa State University, University of Maryland, Wageningen University and Research, Volcani Center, Zamorano University, Stellenbosch University, University of São Paulo, University of Nairobi, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Through the consortium, food loss and waste leaders and experts from across the globe are working in tandem with industry and nonprofit organizations to address social, economic and environmental impacts of food loss and waste. The Consortium focuses on building academic and entrepreneurial capacity of the next generation by engaging researchers and students in multi-national, multi-disciplinary teams in the project identification, planning, and execution phases to reduce food loss and waste, together with experts and entrepreneurs from the private and public sectors.

Food loss and waste hotspots

Experts on food loss and waste of Wageningen Food and Biobased Research are contributing to this project specifically through developing a protocol that helps identify food loss and waste hotspots and root causes. From this, interventions that address the root causes are suggested. They do this based on design principles regarding the usability (a lean protocol that can be implemented with minimal effort for a useful result), insightfulness (the protocol should help users better understand (their part of) the food system) pragmatism (drawing on existing information when available, measuring food loss and waste is optional) and orientation on action (quick identification of hotspots and appropriate interventions with a focus on mid – to low income countries with explicit attention to so-called ‘smart-tech’ innovations that fit local realities).

This so-called EFFICIENT (EFFectIve food Chain IntervENTion) protocol is developed emphasizing a sequence of interconnected steps that are strongly aligned towards the end result of a loss-reducing intervention. Progressing through these steps allows a user to further elucidate and define their position in the food system and the actual problem(s) they are facing, and to identify loss hotspots based on available (or new) information through a structured process. Depending on the scope defined, the approach provides a common denominator in monitoring progress on FLW reduction, and provides food chain actors an accessible and solution-oriented tool to monitor their performance over time, identify (remaining) bottlenecks, and evaluate the efficacy of various interventions.

This approach and its methodological grounding offer two main contributions. First, the thorough comparison of different FLW monitoring frameworks facilitates the selection of the right approach by potential users, possibly lowering the barrier to taking action on FLW. Secondly, the new EFFICIENT approach meets a need previously not met by other frameworks, hopefully motivating a wider range of actors to address FLW.