Strategies to Cut Food Loss at Every Stage of the Postharvest Supply Chain: A Comprehensive Guide

Fresh fruits and vegetables are a vital source of nutrients and fiber, but their limited shelf life and high perishability result in significant food loss across the global food chain. This loss is caused by a variety of factors, including postharvest handling, cold chain mismanagement, and suboptimal packaging. Sudden events, such as extreme weather or the COVID-19 pandemic, also exacerbate food loss and waste. To address these issues, there are a variety of solutions available, but identifying the optimal interventions is challenging due to differences in product type, origin, supply chain standards, and protocols. However, a concise review conducted by the Center for Biomedical Engineering Research in Switzerland provides a roadmap of over 30 solutions for fruit and vegetable suppliers, distributors, and retailers to cut postharvest loss. Their study describes the different drivers of food loss along the supply chain and possible solutions to antagonize them. For example, maintaining an optimal temperature range and proper ventilation can cut temperature abuse in the cold chain, which is a key driver of postharvest losses caused by temperature-dependent processes. Adjusting packaging and storage specifications, such as using biodegradable polymers, coatings, or humidification systems, can address low humidity and increased moisture loss due to transpiration. To reduce food loss in the supply chain, quality standards should be balanced with encouraging the buying of non-conforming products. Monitoring air temperature and environmental factors can identify weaknesses in the cold chain, and technologies such as hygrothermal loggers or time-temperature integrators can sense product conditions. Using this information can improve product inventory management and the implementation of a first-expired-first-out system. The study also presents a roadmap for reducing food loss in the supply chain by targeting specific drivers of loss and inefficiencies in retail operations. Solutions include reducing plastic, monitoring the supply chain, and improving communication between stakeholders. The review also mentions various pre-treatments to preserve fruits and vegetables, such as washing, hot water treatment, and waxing. To check and identify optimal measures for reducing food loss, trade-offs between the value of food loss and the impact of reduction solutions are discussed. Life-cycle analyses of the entire value chain and each operation are recommended to determine optimal measures and to identify trade-offs between food savings, environmental impact reduction, and energy cost savings. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive roadmap of measures to reduce food loss and waste in postharvest fruit and vegetable supply chains. The roadmap is an easy-to-use solution to help stakeholders make decisions and take action to optimize their supply chains and reduce food loss. Author:?Jorge Luis?Alonso G. (with ChatGPT)?Maximizing Agribusiness Profits with Expert Postharvest Storage Strategies | Horticultural Writing Specialist.?This article was written exclusively for the business platform Postharvest. Image by Tumisu from Pixabay