Actions to reduce food loss and food waste: stakeholder perspectives

Although the problem of food loss and waste is well known, and there is a desire on societal, political, and academic levels to address it, tangible actions are still lacking. Since all actors in the food supply chain must lower their food loss and waste, it is important to have insight into the actions they perceive as the most effective. In this research, a Q-study is conducted in which Flemish stakeholders across the food supply chain answered the question “What actions to reduce food loss and food waste, will have the greatest potential?”. The participants ranked 63 statements about possible actions to lower food loss and waste, collected via literature review and interviews. These statements were cross-classified in seven stages of the food supply chain, by three types of measures (i.e. technical, institutional and societal). The findings show three different viewpoints: the (1) Neo-classical, (2) Consumer-oriented and (3) Transformational perspectives. Perspective one prefers technical measures, whereas the other perspectives see more potential in societal action, combined with institutional ones. The perspectives also differ in terms of the stakeholders that should act, the first perspective puts the greatest burden on the consumers, the distribution and logistics. According to the second perspective, most effort must be demanded from the households. The last perspective believes that all actors in the food supply chain should take responsibility. The identified perspectives provide relevant starting points for further research on food loss and waste reduction, in terms of testing if these perspectives still hold in other samples or when considering related topics.