Benefits and Limitations of Methods of Measuring Food Losses and Their Economic and Non-Economic Significance – The Case of Bakery and Confectionery Industry

Abstract

Abstract The urgent challenge of reaching sustainable development goals (including those pertaining to the limitation of food losses and waste) raises social awareness in this area. At the same time, a need arose to conduct studies focusing on the creation of a system of gathering and reporting data on food wastage and procedures helping to reduce its scale. The article presents and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of selected methods of data collection used for estimating of food losses in processing sectors, based on a case of the bakery and confectionery industry (the mass balance method, quantitative studies – questionnaire/survey methods, qualitative research – in-depth interviews, direct measurement). Attention was paid to the importance of methodological, technical, organisational and legal aspects. The starting points were the methods for certain links in the food chain identified in EU legal documents of 2019. Bakery and confectionery businesses make up around 40% of the number of entities operating in the agri-food sector in Poland, holding an important place in the food economy. The sector's losses are around 2.5% of the mass of the manufactured products, with the highest losses attributable to production departments in bakeries. The complexity of manufacturing processes of a wide range of bakery and confectionery products raises numerous problems with regard to measuring losses, especially in the methodological, technical, organisational and legal aspects. The mass balance method should be considered the most recommended for measuring losses in the bakery and confectionery sector. Collected knowledge can be used on a practical level, to create reporting systems about food losses in our country for selected food sectors. Such actions will allow meeting the reporting requirements of the European Commission (EC) and to monitor process of food loss reduction.