Addressing food waste: An analysis of causes, impacts, and solutions in modern societies

: Purpose : The primary aim of this paper is to explore the issue of food waste in contemporary societies, its causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Methodology : The authors conducted a survey among households in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship of Poland to diagnose the structure and causes of food waste. They also analyzed statistical data on food waste in European Union countries. Results : The study found that the most food waste occurs in Germany, France, and Italy, while the least occurs in Malta, Luxembourg, and Slovenia. The authors concluded that food waste harms three interconnected areas of sustainable development goals: environmental, economic, and social. Theoretical Contribution : This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on food waste by providing a comprehensive analysis of its causes and impacts backed by empirical data. It adds value to sustainability studies by linking food waste to broader socio-economic and environmental issues. Practical Implications : The authors propose several measures to reduce food waste, such as planning purchases, processing food, sharing food with relatives or pets, using conventional and non-standard methods of food storage, and increasing the level of education and awareness about the issue. Individuals, communities, and policy-makers can implement these practical suggestions to address the problem of food waste.


Introduction
Food waste is a serious social problem on a global scale.It applies to many countries around the world, both developed and developing.It turns out to be paradoxical that in a situation of nutritional poverty occurring in many geographical areas and social classes, many tons of food are still wasted.The 2021 UN report indicates that the main links in food supply chains causing food waste are households, retail stores, and the catering industry.The scale of this phenomenon is 931 million tons per year, of which nearly 570 million tons (61.2%) are generated at the household level (Food Waste Index Report, 2021).An essential step in changing the current European Union food system into a sustainable model was the development of the "Farm to Fork" Strategy by the Council of the European Union in 2020.The priorities next to food security are (Figure 1).Food waste harms three related areas with the sustainable development goals 1 .These are: environmental, economic, and social areas (Table 1).

Global warming Financial losses Increased consumption Emission of methane
Additional costs in relation to the treatment of wasted food Lack of confidence in the security of the food supply The need to manage the greater mass of organic and inorganic waste Increased investment connected with the employment of people, purchase of raw materials, maintaining systems providing health security as well as maintenance of machinery equipment Increasing food costs Increase in the price of foodstuffs Rise in the cost of production Source: (Dąbrowska, Zielińska, Monastyrskyi & Drozda, 2023, pp. 11).

Processing
Distribution Sale Logistics

Literature review
Changes in food production and consumption result from ongoing civilization changes and the globalization of food markets.The positive manifestations of globalization include the emergence of new markets, access to new raw materials, products, and processing technologies, as well as increased availability of food products with different quality characteristics.The negative aspects of the changes are overconsumption and food waste, which are noticeable in developed countries.Unsustainable production and consumption are the causes of food waste.For this reason, it can be concluded that food waste is inextricably linked to irrational management processes at various stages of the food chain (Śmiechowska, 2015(Śmiechowska, , Tarczyńska, 2021)).Food losses and waste are sources of the most critical threats to food security2 .The others include population growth, increasing demand for food with shrinking water and land resources, climate change, loss of biodiversity of agricultural varieties, new plant and animal diseases, rising energy and food prices, fight for arable land with biofuel producers, industry and urbanization and speculation on the food price market (Kwasek, 2013).
Nowadays, food production is a very complex process.Local farms or processing plants can produce a finished product based solely on raw materials.Other entities are forced to use raw materials from agricultural producers and services provided by other entities, which supply them with individual raw materials, materials, and components necessary to produce the finished product, thus becoming links in the supply chain.For this reason, it can be said that in the modern economy, food products are the result of cooperation between links within the "food chain" (Chechelski, 2015) (see Figure 2 and Table 2).Source: (Chechelski, 2015, pp. 50).

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The problem of food waste and losses occurs in all links of the food chain.The reasons for this state of affairs can be found in many sources (Table 3).-food impoverishment of societies, -growing amount of waste, -limited access to full-value products, -ethical aspect caused by an imbalance in food availability in different regions of the world, -limited availability of healthy food for people experiencing poverty, -growing food exclusion.
-shrinking water resources3, -increase in CO2 emission4, -increasing the greenhouse effect, -shrinking non-renewable energy resources, -disruption of the ecosystem, -approaching wild animals closer to residential buildings, -growing amount of waste, -soil degradation, -introducing plant protection products into the ecosystem, -unsustainable use of natural resources.
Source: own study.
The article aims to diagnose the structure and causes of product waste in households based on survey research and to analyze the interdependence of selected variables used in the survey.

Food waste in the economies of the European Union -statistical approach European Union
According to data from the Eurostat platform from 2020, the total food wasted per capita in the European Union was 131 kg (Table 5).Source: (Eurostat, n.d.).
In 2020, people in the European Union wasted 59 million tons of food (Figure 3).‹ 289 › The data presented in Figure 3 shows that over 31 tonnes of wasted food came from households, accounting for over 53% of the total food wasted in the European Union.Nearly 12 million tons of food were wasted in the "manufacture of food products and beverages" sector, constituting 20% of the total food wasted in the European Union countries.More than 6 million tons (which accounted for 11% of the share) were recorded in the "primary production" sector.The "restaurants and food services" sector notes more than 5 million tons of food wasted (9% of the share).Finally, the "restaurants and food services" sector documented over 4 million tons of food (which accounted for 7% of the share)".
Table 6 shows the values of food waste in 2020, divided into European countries, measured in tons of fresh weight, divided into sectors.Source: (Eurostat, n.d.).
Based on the data in Table 6, it can be concluded that the most food was wasted in 2020 in Germany, France, and Italy, and the least in Malta, Luxembourg, and Slovenia.The reasons for this state of affairs include, among others: -number of inhabitants (Germany, France, and Italy are the countries with the most significant number of inhabitants in Europe), -GDP indicator (Germany, France, and Italy are the countries with the highest GDP indicator in Europe).

Poland
According to the Supreme Audit Office report in Poland, citizens wasted nearly 5 million tons of food in 2021.60% of wasted food came from households, 15.60% -from processing, 15.50% -from agricultural production, 6.96 -from trade, 1.17% -from gastronomy, and 0.65% -from transport (Figure 4).The most common reasons for food waste in Polish households include 65.2% -food spoilage, 42.0% -missing the expiration date, 26.5% -preparing too much food, 22.2% -purchasing too much food, 19.7% -ill-considered purchases, 17.0% -too large packaging, 14.2% -improper storage, 10.8%purchases of low-quality products and 10.3% -lack of ideas on how to use the products to prepare dishes (Figure 5).

Materials and methods of food waste
The survey research was conducted in April -August 2023.

The main aim of the study.
The study aims to determine the structure and causes of product waste in households and the possibilities of reducing it.

The study group's characteristics
The survey was conducted based on a survey questionnaire posted on the google.plplatform.231 randomly selected people took part in the study.The study group was characterized by considering two variables: sex and age.
Table 9 presents the characteristics of people participating in the research survey concerning the relationship between two variables.Source: own study based on own research.

Results
The surveys' collective results are presented.24 respondents answered several times a week, 46 -most often after holidays and celebrations, 62 -several times a month, and 99 -occasionally during the year.
Figure 6 shows the collective results of the surveys for question 3: What are the main reasons you throw away food in your household?The question was a multiple-choice question.The respondents indicated the leading causes of food waste in the household: 173 -expiration of food, 51unsightly appearance of the product, 110 -change in smell, consistency, color, taste, 25 -buying more than one can consume or process, 9 -change in tastes flavors, 21-invisible/unreadable expiration date.
‹ 292 › For question 4: When buying food, do you pay attention to the expiration date?The question was a single-choice question.166 respondents answered yes, 10 -no, 55 -sometimes.
Figure 7 shows the collective results of the surveys for question 5: According to your knowledge, the information on food packaging saying "Best before" means?The question was a multiple-choice question.57 respondents indicated the date of minimum durability, 96 -the date up to which stored food retains its properties, 68 -that eating food after the given date does not mean that the food will be harmful to our health, and 72 -that food after the date marked on the packaging should not be used since consuming it, as it may result in illness or severe health problems.For question 6: According to your knowledge, the information on food packaging saying "Use by" means that?The question was a multiple-choice question.116 (50,2%) respondents answered that the product should be consumed no later than the expiry date, 53 (22,9%) -eating the product after the expiry date may cause serious health consequences, 47 (20,3%) -this is an absolute shelf life, 71 (30,7%)-the manufacturer guarantees that by the indicated date the purchased product is of the highest quality.
For question 7: What do you do with food you have not used?The question was a multiplechoice question.117 (50,6%) respondents answered that they throw it into the trash, 31 (13,4%)share it with someone close to them, such as neighbours, 109 (47,2%)-donate it to animals, 22 (9,5%)-secure it and hang it next to the trash can with the hope that someone will use it, 5 (2,2%)donate it to a food bank (community refrigerators), 63 (27,3%)-process, freeze.
To question 8: What can you do to reduce food waste?The respondents most often gave the following answers: -buy less (47 answers), ISSN 2520-2979 Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics,8(2), 2023 ‹ 293 › -plan shopping (37 answers), -process food (27 answers), -give to people and animals in need (24 answers), -I do not know (21 answers).
According to the authors, the answer "I do not know" to the question may be caused by the following reasons: -the lack of a friendly state and law promoting behaviours and attitudes limiting food waste and the lack of an adopted social policy emphasizing the problem of food waste, -lack of consideration of food waste as a source of the social security crisis and lack of prepared preventive programs, -low level of theoretical and practical education in this area, resulting in a lack of knowledge and awareness of available solutions to avoid food waste and a lack of knowledge about rational bio-waste management, -low level of involvement of food-producing entities in social campaigns promoting not wasting food and illustrating the importance of the problem, increasing social awareness, -lack of implemented nationwide solutions in the field of food waste prevention, including the lack of prepared and implemented solutions about logistic activities aimed at optimizing flows in agrifood chains, -lack of an integrated time-synchronized mobile application system enabling access to information on the possibility of purchasing food at attractive prices related to the product life cycle.

Analysis of correlations for selected survey questions regarding food waste in households
The interpretation of survey results on food waste in households was extended to include an analysis of interdependence for two selected pairs of questions; the analysis aimed to determine the relationship and its strength between the selected pairs of questions.The term dependence refers to the examined dependent feature (explained -Y) and independent features (explanatory -X).
In statistical research for mass phenomena, stochastic correlation, which occurs between two questions in the survey, is used.Changing the value of one question changes the probability distribution of the other question.
There are many measures for examining stochastic dependence.This article describes the stochastic relationship determined using the Czuprow convergence coefficient (TXY, TYX): In which: N -total number of respondents, min (k,l) is the smallest number of rows or columns in the correlation table.The Czuprow convergence coefficient only allows determining the strength of the relationship, including for qualitative data (Zielińska & Sej-Kolasa, 2004).
The correlation analysis was performed separately for the two question pairs.The following questions were selected in the first pair: Y -respondent's age X -How often do you throw out food?Based on the survey results obtained from 231 respondents (N = 231), a correlation table was developed (Table 10).Source: own study based on own research.
Then, the Czuprow coefficient of variation was calculated: Based on the data analysis in Table 10, there is a minimal relationship (0.124) between the analyzed first group of questions.However, considering the increase in ecological and economic awareness of society and the knowledge of food preservation methods, the article's authors hypothesized that such a relationship would not only occur but also be characterized by a significant strength.The correlation results did not confirm the hypothesis.
In the second pair authors selected the following questions: Y -Respondent's sex X -When buying groceries, do you pay attention to the expiration date?Based on the survey results obtained from 231 respondents (N = 231), a correlation table was developed (Table 11).

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Links in the "food chain"

Figure 3 :
Figure 3: The number of food wasted in the European Union in 2020 by sector

Figure 4 :
Figure 4: Food waste in Poland in 2021 divided into sectors

Figure 5 :
Figure 5: Food waste in Poland in 2021, including the causes of waste , technique, and research tool.The research method was based on social research, whereas the individual survey technique was chosen.A survey questionnaire was simultaneously a research tool.The survey questionnaire consisted of 8 questions with closed and open cafeteria, conjunctive (multiple choice), and disjunctive ‹ 291 › (single choice).The survey targeted people running households and living in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

Figure 6 :
Figure 6: The collective results of the surveys for question 3: What are the main reasons you throw away food in your household?

Figure 7 :
Figure 7: The collective results of the surveys for question 5: According to your knowledge, the information on food packaging saying "Best before" means?