Local setting influences the quantity of household food waste in mid-sized South African towns

Chakona, Gamuchirai; Shackleton, Charlie M

Title: Local setting influences the quantity of household food waste in mid-sized South African towns
Creator: Chakona, Gamuchirai, Shackleton, Charlie M
Date: 2013
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67289
Identifier: vital:29067
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189407
Description: publisher version
Description: From Introduction: The world faces a food security challenge with approximately 868 million people undernourished and about two billion people suffering from the negative health consequences of micronutrient deficiencies [1]. Yet, at least one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted along the food chain between farm and fork [2–7]. Food waste refers to wholesome edible material intended for human consumption, arising at any point in the food supply chain that is instead discarded, lost, degraded or consumed by pests [8]. Food loss is defined as the decrease in food quantity or quality which makes it unfit for human consumption [9]. According to the European Commission [10], food waste is composed of raw or cooked food materials such as vegetable peelings, meat trimmings and spoiled or excess ingredients or prepared food as well as bones, carcasses and organs. However, food waste can be measured only for edible products that are directed to human consumption [6]. Food losses take place at production, postharvest and processing stages in the food supply chain and the food losses that occur at the end of the food chain (retail and final consumption) are called “food waste” [11]. In our study food waste refers to food losses that occur at the end of the food chain (final consumption at household or consumer level) which include edible products that are directed to human consumption and are discarded when not consumed for various reasons. It is related to consumers’ behaviour [6,11] and it includes food loss before, during or after meal preparation in the household.
Description: The research was funded by VW foundation under the Livelihoods Urbanisation and Natural Resources in Africa (LUNA) project through Freiburg University, Germany. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript
Format: 20 pages, pdf
Publisher: PLoS ONE
Language: English
Relation: Agriculture & Food Security, Chakona, G., Shackleton, C. M. (2017) Local setting influences the quantity of household food waste in mid-sized South African towns. PLoS ONE 12(12): e0189407. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189407, Agriculture & Food Security volume 12 number 12 1 20 2017 0189407
Rights: Copyright held by the authors
Rights: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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SDG 12. Responsible Consumption and Production

Chakona, Gamucharai (Dr)

RU Department of Environmental Science

Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)

SDG 02. Zero Hunger

SDG 01. No Poverty

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