Supply Chain Management for Reducing Food Waste

Dear Colleagues,

Food waste refers to produce discarded by end-consumers, unlike food loss, which occurs during production, post-harvest, and processing. End-consumers include not only households but also small restaurateurs and fast-food retailers. These actors waste about one-fifth of the food produced for human consumption, approximately USD 1 trillion annually. Despite sufficient global food production to meet the world's needs, over 300 million people in 72 countries face food insecurity (World Food program, 2024). This waste significantly impacts food costs and resource misuse (over a quarter of food-producing land is wasted), contributing to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing food waste is complex. Local solutions can help alleviate acute food insecurity, but are insufficient alone. Effective strategies must address issues like (a) food production and packaging, (b) supply chain integration (e.g., coordination, collaboration and data sharing), (c) technological innovations (e.g., IoT devices, blockchain), (d) process optimization (e.g., lean practices, six sigma), (e) sustainable practices (e.g., circular economy, sustainable packaging), (f) policy and regulation (e.g., government policies, standards), and (g) consumer education (e.g., awareness campaigns and behavioral nudges). While food supply chain management offers various tools to address food waste, more comprehensive approaches and insights are needed. Effectively tackling this challenge requires a systemic perspective encompassing the entire supply chain, from production to consumption.

This Special Issue seeks to explore innovative strategies, technologies, and practices to significantly reduce food waste across the supply chain, positively impacting consumers, communities, and society. We invite high-quality research papers, case studies showcasing successful initiatives, and review articles that provide insights into the challenges and solutions for minimizing food waste and loss from production to consumption.

Dr. Eliseo Luis Vilalta-Perdomo
Dr. David Ernesto Salinas-Navarro
Dr. Omer Ozturkoglu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• business plan
• circular economy
• food insecurity
• food loss
• food supply chain management
• food waste
• network optimization
• pricing strategies
• systems thinking