Food waste generation and industrial uses: A review Francesca Girotto ⇑ , Luca Alibardi, Raffaello Cossu Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy article info Article history: Received 22 February 2015 Revised 26 May 2015 Accepted 4 June 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Food waste Generation Prevention Biorefinery Biofuels Bioproducts abstract Food waste is made up of materials intended for human consumption that are subsequently discharged, lost, degraded or contaminated. The problem of food waste is currently on an increase, involving all sec- tors of waste management from collection to disposal; the identifying of sustainable solutions extends to all contributors to the food supply chains, agricultural and industrial sectors, as well as retailers and final consumers. A series of solutions may be implemented in the appropriate management of food waste, and prioritised in a similar way to waste management hierarchy. The most sought-after solutions are repre- sented by avoidance and donation of edible fractions to social services. Food waste is also employed in industrial processes for the production of biofuels or biopolymers. Further steps foresee the recovery of nutrients and fixation of carbon by composting. Final and less desirable options are incineration and landfilling. A considerable amount of research has been carried out on food waste with a view to the recovery of energy or related products. The present review aims to provide an overview of current debate on food waste definitions, generation and reduction strategies, and conversion technologies emerging from the biorefinery concept. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Food loss and food waste are often used in scientific literature to identify materials intended for human consumption that are subsequently discharged, lost, degraded or contaminated. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) defined food loss (FL) as any change in the availability, edibility, wholesomeness or quality of edible material that prevents it from being consumed by people. This definition was provided for the post-harvest period of food ending when it comes into the posses- sion of the final consumer (FAO, 1981). Gustavsson et al. (2011) reported a similar definition of FL but included also the production stage of a food supply chain (FSC) and not only postharvest and processing stages. Parfitt et al. (2010) defined food waste (FW) as the food loss occurring at the retail and final consumption stages and its generation is related to retailers’ and consumers’ behaviour. Recently the European Project FUSIONS (Östergren et al., 2014) defined FW by using the resource flows of the agri-food system. FW was defined as ‘‘any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from (lost to or diverted from) the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed (including composted, crops ploughed in/not harvested, anaerobic digestion, bio-energy production, co-generation, incinera- tion, disposal to sewer, landfill or discarded to sea).’’ Any food being produced for human consumption, but which leaves the food sup- ply chain, is considered FW while organic materials produced for the non-food production chain are not considered FW (Östergren et al., 2014). The definitions of FL and FW therefore overlap. These terms are used in literature for material discharged at both the manufacturing and retail stages and the consumption or household levels, highlighting the need for commonly-agreed and improved definitions (Williams et al., 2015). Discharge of food material occurs along the entire Food Supply Chain (FSC) and it involves all sectors of waste management from collection to disposal. Detailed analysis of a FSC system will high- light how the generation of waste material (food losses, organic waste or food waste) affects all sectors involved in the production, distribution and consumption of food (Parfitt et al., 2010; Pfaltzgraff et al., 2013). A FSC starts with the production of food from the agricultural sector where both farming and husbandry produce waste or sub-products that may be either organic waste (i.e. cornstalk, manure), food waste or food loss (i.e. low quality fruits or vegetable, damaged productions left in the field, good products or co-products with a low or absent commercial value). The food processing and manufacturing industry produces food losses and food waste throughout the entire production phase due to reasons such as: damage during transport or non-appropriate transport systems, problems during storage, losses during processing or contamination, inappropriate packag- ing. The retail system and markets also generate FL and FW, largely http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.06.008 0956-053X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: francesca.girotto.3@studenti.unipd.it (F. Girotto), luca. alibardi@unipd.it (L. Alibardi), raffaello.cossu@unipd.it (R. Cossu). Waste Management xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman Please cite this article in press as: Girotto, F., et al. Food waste generation and industrial uses: A review. Waste Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.06.008