Food waste: challenges and opportunities in sustainable operations

The call for papers for this Special Forum resulted in a very competitive selection of 37 being submitted. After several rounds of blind review, six papers were selected for this Special Forum. They clearly illustrate the challenges of carrying out research into sustainable operations and food waste reduction. They examine a variety of units of analysis and theories, which are embedded in different geographical contexts, and use a variety of analytical methods. What they all have in common is that they reveal just how applicable research aimed at finding solutions for reducing food waste is. In this Introductory article, we summarize the contributions of each of these six papers to the literature

Methodological approaches to tackling food waste : moving the agenda forward

COVID 19 disrupted food supply chains worldwide. Existing problems, such as food and nutrition insecurity, increased exponentially. It has become imperative to move to a more sustainable and equitable food system. In this sense, the challenge in researching food losses and waste (FLW) and proposing solutions mobilizes transdisciplinary approaches and processes to transform food supply chains in an effective manner. Understanding how much food we produce and consume is no easy task. So many different geographical, cultural and societal contexts and levels of economic development and urbanization result in quantitative and qualitative limitations