Scale and Environmental Impacts of Food Loss and Waste in China—A Material Flow Analysis

Abstract

Evidence of China’s food loss and waste (FLW) and its increasing impacts on food security and environmental sustainability is urgently needed to guide policy intervention and avoid unnecessary damage to human health and the environment. This paper estimates the scale of China’s FLW in 2019 and assesses the environmental impacts of major food types along the entire food supply chain (FSC) by using a food balance and material flow analysis (MFA) based on existing empirical research. The results show a total FLW of 422.56 Mt which is around 22.37% of total food production (1889.12 Mt). There are also serious environmental impacts on the land footprint (LF), water footprint (WF), and the carbon footprint (CF) estimation (4152.36 × 109 gm2, 613.84 × 106 t CO2e and 506.07 × 109 m3 on average, respectively), most of which are found in foods of animal products, cereals, vegetables and fruit at the stages of consumption, agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage. In addition, the root causes of FLW generation at different levels—micro, meso and macro—were also analyzed. These results will provide significant guidance to researchers and decision-makers on primary data collection and reduction-policy development for China’s FLW.

Role of Urban Metabolism Assessments in Addressing Food Security through Urban Agriculture in Informal Settlements: A Critical Review

“…This focus on UM, comprising 36.84% of the studies in this dataset, along with 38 studies in Food and 34 in Agriculture, with France and Spain leading the research in these areas, demonstrates a robust infrastructure supporting research into sustainable urban living and food systems [95][96][97][98] Asia's research output, led by East Asia, reflects a strategic accent on UM with 33 studies and Food with 28 studies. China alone contributes 13 studies (40%) to each of these areas, signaling a regional recognition of the importance of resource management and food security within the context of their urban landscapes [99][100][101][102][103] . In Africa, 27 studies (20.45% of total research) concentrate on UM, highlighting a significant interest in urban sustainability.…”

The concept of food waste and food loss prevention and measuring tools

“…emissions, 58 L of freshwater use, 2.9 g of nitrogen use and 0.48 g of phosphorus use (Lopez Barrera and Hertel, 2021). Jia et al (2023) showed that FL/FW in China was responsible for 614 billion tonnes of CO 2 , which is equivalent to 6.9% of the country's total emissions. The amount of water wasted for the same FLW was approximate 506 billion m 3 .…”

Optimization of Vegetable Restocking and Pricing Strategies for Innovating Supermarket Operations Utilizing a Combination of ARIMA, LSTM, and FP-Growth Algorithms

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