At Eindhoven University of Technology, we are working hard on advancing research on Food in a WUR-TU/e cooperation. Also within the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, we have been working on a number of relevant research projects over the past year, especially when focusing on perishable products.

Both food loss and food waste are important aspects within food supply chains (management). Food loss is usually seen within the supply chain (e.g. production issues, storage, etc.), while food waste is all food that is removed  but is still fit for human consumption, e.g. at the retailers or at the consumers.

In their study (published here), Rezaei and Liu give the following figure for food loss and waste.

Cummulatively speaking, around 40-55% of the total food production is lost. Around 30-50% is  lost in the supply chain and around 5-20% is lost at the consumption point. Also note the wordlwide differences. This is huge…

At the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, we are setting up new research activities to reduce these numbers. Topics include smart food production, retail inventory control, pricing strategies, food consumption models, retail food waste reduction, fat tax impacts, historical perspectives of food supply chains, etc.

Are you interested in discussing this further with us? Please contact me directly and get involved.