Sustainable Approaches for Food Waste

Abstract

Food is wasted at every stage from farm to fork, resulting in both food loss and environmental degradation. Depletion of natural resources, climate change and population disparities call for urgent measures for food security, food safety and strategies for food waste management. Food waste, which contains highly valuable components, is generated during processes such as harvesting, processing, distribution, storage, etc., and about 30% of the food produced worldwide becomes waste each year. Another issue is the economic and environmental consequences that arise as a result of food waste being dumped in landfills without being utilized, especially in developing countries. It is imperative to disseminate scientific studies on reducing food waste and converting it into high value-added products. Additionally, expanding the usage areas of recovered products and implementing related improvements are crucial, particularly in the food sector. The transformation of food waste into energy and valuable substances such as fertilizers, especially for agriculture, is other important issues that need to be addressed from an environmental and economic point of view. In order to reduce food waste, make economic use of it and minimize the environmental problems it causes, this book chapter looks at food waste from a sustainability perspective. Sources of food waste, including industrial processes, food waste prevention efforts that can be applied especially in developing countries, energy and compost production from food waste, and innovative solutions for food waste are presented based on a literature review. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.