Characterization and Analysis of Public Policies to Prevent and Manage Food Waste in Mexico

Abstract

Every year, 20.4 million tons of food are wasted in Mexico, which is about 34% of the national production. To date, there is no official national strategy, nor is there a guide to prioritize the actions to be implemented. At the same time, the global trend to reduce food waste is based on solutions that follow the priorities established for waste management in general, focusing first on prevention and then on reuse and recycling. The aim of this work is to identify, characterize, and analyze Mexican public policies for the prevention and management of food waste, compare them with international guidelines, and provide recommendations. Our results show that the public policies and the analyzed initiatives are concentrated at the levels of recycle (40.0%), prevention (34.1%), and reuse (29.4%). The type of actions currently implemented in Mexico are weak because they do not generate structural changes in the food system to avoid food waste. In Mexico, as in the rest of the world, food production, transportation, and consumption require efficient and sustainable practices in the face of the devasting effects of climate change. Policies to counteract food waste are not enough to achieve structural changes in the food system, so it is necessary to strengthen prevention, which has the greatest potential to reduce environmental, economic and social impacts.