Food loss and waste

In this study, the authors set out to determine whether the financial benefits of implementing food loss and waste reduction strategies outweigh the costs, and if so by how much. Authors used examples with available financial benefit and cost data to estimate benefit to the cost ratios of taking action for a country, city and companies. Importantly, the study found that success depended on public private engagement through business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and government interventions.

According to their calculations, just the financial benefit to cost ratio is 250 to 1 – so on average, for every £1 invested, they saw a benefit of £250. In addition to this impressive financial return, interviews with business and government leaders suggested there were a number of positive, but harder to measure, non-financial benefits to investing in food waste reduction strategies, such as improving food security, waste regulations, environmental sustainability, stakeholder relationships, and a sense of ethical responsibility.

Although this case study focuses on interventions in the UK where there may be more robust regulatory environment, infrastructure and resources, there are lessons for everyone here. 

FoodTechIndia (FTI) is a public private initiative that began in 2017 to address food loss and waste in India. There is growing demand for nutritious food in India, yet approximately 40% of fruits and vegetables are loss each year.  This initiative seeks to address the increased demand, and to address the associated economic losses – estimated at about €1.8 billion per year.  To address these gaps, the initiative will combine the strengths of Dutch agro-food companies, knowledge institutes, governmental agencies and their Indian counterparts to reduce loss and waste by addressing inefficiencies and improving supply and cold chains.  The initiative focuses its activities for now on the state of Karnataka.

By leveraging the experience of the five partners involved in the initiative, it is hoped that the major causes of food loss and waste will be addressed, and efficiency will be improved.   The actions include: On-farm technology and training; More efficient harvesting, packaging and transportation; Cold chain technology and storage techniques; and Better links to markets through established supply and cold chains. The full list of objectives can be found here..

Partners in the initiative include:

• Broekman Logistics: Leading provider of logistic services globally with core business in international freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution.
• Future Consumer Limited: Leading retailer with multiple retail formats spread over India. Future Group is engaged in sourcing, branding, marketing and distribution of FMCG, food and processed food products in urban and rural India.
• Rijk Zwaan: One of the top 5 vegetable breeding company with the focus on the development of high-quality vegetable varieties.
• TNO: Independent applied knowledge institute whose expertise will contribute to cold storage and cold logistics solutions
• Larive International: A business development advisory firm specialized in assisting companies in developing and implementing their market entry or expansion strategies in(to) high-growth markets.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands: The consortium is in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to jointly execute the project successfully.

As a relatively new initiative, no results have been published but stay tuned and we will update as new information and results become available.