Integrated Advanced Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Material Flow Analysis (MFA) for Hotspot Identification and Spatial Mapping of Food Waste across a Multi-Regional Supply Chain

Food waste is a complex, multi-scalar phenomenon that exerts disproportionate pressure on planetary boundaries, particularly in the context of globally entangled food supply chains. Traditional assessment methods often fail to capture the nuanced interdependencies between spatial, economic, and environmental flows of food systems. In response, this study proposes an integrated, tiered framework that synergistically combines advanced process-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Substance Flow-based Material Flow Analysis (MFA), and hybridized Multi-Regional Input-Output (MR-IO) modeling. This methodological convergence enables the spatially explicit identification and quantification of environmental hotspots attributable to food waste across heterogeneous stages of the supply chain. Our approach overcomes limitations inherent in conventional LCA-MFA applications—namely, limited regional resolution and sectoral aggregation-by harmonizing bottom-up primary data with top-down economic-environmental linkages derived from EXIOBASE and EORA global MRIO databases. Spatial disaggregation is achieved through integration with NUTS۳-level regional statistics and calibrated using harmonized inventories from FAOSTAT, Eurostat, and national FLW registries. Environmental impact categories include climate change potential (IPCC ۲۰۲۱ GWP۱۰۰), blue water consumption, land occupation, and nutrient-driven eutrophication potentials (both marine and freshwater), allowing for a robust multi-criteria environmental assessment. Applied to a pan-European case study encompassing the EU-۲۷ agri-food system, results demonstrate that more than ۳۰% of food waste-related environmental burdens are concentrated in less than ۱۵% of regional nodes, with post-harvest and distribution stages being the most critical. Furthermore, transboundary trade in embedded environmental externalities introduces significant complexity, underscoring the need for cross-regional coordination in waste mitigation policies. This framework establishes a new methodological benchmark for sustainability science, offering actionable intelligence for both policy and industrial innovation. It empowers stakeholders to target interventions at the most environmentally and economically consequential points of the supply chain-thus enabling a more circular, resource-efficient, and climate-resilient food system.

کلیدواژه ها:

Food waste ، LCA ، MFA ، MR-IO ، hotspots ، sustainability