Causes of food waste. A study in the Barcelona metropolitan area

Abstract

Even though more nutrients and calories than ever are available, the food system has shown weakness with respect to the use and sharing of food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one third of the food produced worldwide is not consumed. This phenomenon is known as food waste and it is acquiring greater importance in all spheres of society as all the current food waste prevention initiatives have shown. The concept is understood and defined differently by the various stakeholders. Therefore, different definitional frameworks coexist, leading to incomparability among different studies. Despite this, there is an urgent need to work towards a significant reduction of food waste because of the magnitude of this issue. In order to shed some light on the problem and to discuss the forthcoming challenges, this article presents a literature review focusing on the definitional frameworks and the measurements provided by different reports. The article also analyses the causes of food waste, mainly focusing on the metropolitan area of Barcelona. In-depth interviews are carried out with key stakeholders to identify the main causes of food waste in Barcelona and, subsequently, compare them with other studies worldwide. The purpose of the article is to generate an interesting debate on the challenges posed by the need to reduce food waste by half as the twelfth Sustainable Development Goal promotes. It also seeks to understand the roots of the problem by analysing data from the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

Keywords: food waste, food loss, food wastage, Barcelona, conceptual frameworks.