A Framework of a Conceptual Model to manage the Food Lost and Waste in the Agri-Food supply chain

Abstract

Food loss and waste (FLW) are significant opportunities for the agri-food sector. The FLW management includes all activities allowing to prevent, reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover the discarded food from the market during the postharvest supply chain. Although many strategies allow pursuing these actions, in most cases the availability of FLW generated in Primary Processing Centers does not meet the demand of stakeholders able to manage it. To increase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of FLW reuse, suitable strategies have to be adopted. Consistent with this aim, a conceptual model to be implemented in a business-to-business web platform is proposed to support the decision-maker in identifying the best FLW management strategy under a sustainable perspective, adopting a multicriteria decision method. The numerical simulation results proved the model's effectiveness in identifying the most appropriate FLW management strategy within a set of alternatives.