Strategies for food waste management to improve sustainable development

Introduction: According to the report of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about ۱.۳ billion tons or onethird of the foods produced around the world wasted or lost throughout the food supply chain from farm to finalhousehold consumption. Sustainable agriculture, nutritional challenge, and food loss and food waste are threecomponents of a sustainable food system entitled the Food Sustainability Index (FSI). Food waste related issues indeveloping countries is currently considered to be a major threatening factor for sustainable development and foodwaste management systems. So that, we aim to recommend several methods for food waste management and improvesustainable development especially in the developing countries.Material and Methods: The comprehensive literature search was performed in electronic databases includingMEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, ISI web of Science, and Google scholar, up to August ۲۰۲۲. The review andobservational study studies that reported food waste, FSI, and sustainable development were included in the currentsystematic review.Findings: Food waste is considered as food produced for human consumption but has scraped or was not consumedby humans. Inappropriate food conservation in storage level, caring for pet and avoidance of leftovers in consumptionlevel, over-preparation in preparation level, and excessive purchase in stocking and buying levels are considered asantecedents of household food waste. Several strategies have been suggested to decrease food waste generationincluding correction of cooking and eating behavior, food waste separation or composting behavior, improvingconsumers' knowledge of food waste, improving consumer’s environmental awareness, and determining governmentpolicy on management of reducing food waste.Conclusion: The current study suggested that increasing knowledge and awareness of consumer about food wastemanagement and updating government policies to reduce food waste create opportunity in handling the production offood waste and moving toward the sustainable development goal to “end hunger, achieve food security and improvednutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”.

کلیدواژه ها:

Food waste ، Food Sustainability Index ، Sustainable development