EU Food Loss and Waste Prevention Hub

A key challenge in addressing food loss in the primary sector is understanding the most relevant factors that drive losses in the early stages of the food value chain. In FOLOU, a systemic literature review about food loss in the primary sector was carried out by analysing 76 academic articles and grey literature reports. As a result, 35 drivers of food loss were identified according to three macro-categories (environmental, behavioural and societal drivers).

By carrying out a two-step screening procedure, the review identified 405 occurrences of 35 societal, behavioural, and environmental drivers of food losses during the primary production stage. Of these, half (204) are societal drivers, 29% (118) are related to behavioural drivers, while 20% (83) are related to drivers of environmental nature.

The most frequent drivers include marketing and industry standards (SOC3), inefficient storage and processing infrastructures (SOC7), inadequate or improper handling of the product (BEH6), pest and diseases (ENV2) and unexpected climate and weather events (ENV1).

Of the 10 most commonly investigated causes, the majority (8) contribute directly to food losses, while only two were identified as indirect causes. This highlights the important role that direct actions by primary producers and related stakeholders play in the occurrence of food losses.
When looking at the food commodity sector coverage, most of the reviewed articles and reports (56%) refer to the fruits and vegetables commodity sector. About 41% of studies covering the general primary production sector do not specify which foods they are referring to when talking about the causes of food loss.

The FOLOU project is currently undertaking semi-structured interviews, starting from the analysis of the 35 behavioural, societal and environmental drivers identified to frame standardized interviews that have been consequently performed with practitioners from various commodity sectors within the primary production sector. Based on this compilation of primary and secondary data on food loss drivers and impacts for the different commodity sectors, an analysis and assessment of existing and emerging solutions to prevent and reduce food losses will be conducted.