Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Nick Voulvoulis

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy

Professor of Environmental Technology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7459n.voulvoulis Website

 
 
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Location

 

103Weeks BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Facchini:2018:10.1080/10962247.2017.1405854,
author = {Facchini, E and Iacovidou, E and Gronow, J and Voulvoulis, N},
doi = {10.1080/10962247.2017.1405854},
journal = {Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association},
pages = {887--899},
title = {Food flows in the United Kingdom: the potential of surplus food redistribution to reduce waste},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2017.1405854},
volume = {68},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The increasing amount of food waste generated as a direct consequence of its excessive production, mismanagement, and wasteful behaviors represents a real challenge in promoting resource efficiency. In the United Kingdom (UK), the lack of robust mass flow data hinders the ability both to understand and address food waste challenges and to devise long-term sustainable prevention strategies. In recognition of these challenges, this paper seeks to (i) provide insights into the UK's annual estimates of food mass flows, including imports, exports, distribution, consumption, surplus food production, and final disposal; and (ii) scrutinize the uptake and redistribution of surplus food as a potential food waste prevention strategy. Evidence collected from several enterprises and community-led initiatives in the UK, and London specifically, supports that there is an increasing potential of making a shift towards food redistribution and reuse. Further analysis has shown that the outreach of food redistribution initiatives in the UK is currently limited, possibly because redistribution efforts remain largely fragmented and independent from each other. It is concluded that a national commitment could be instrumental in encouraging the roll-out of this practice, and governmental support through fiscal incentives could lead to the development of a larger and coherent surplus food redistribution system, ultimately enabling food waste prevention and recovery of food's multidimensional value. IMPLICATIONS: This paper deals with the topical issue of the increasing amount of food waste generated as a direct consequence of excessive production, mismanagement, and wasteful behavior, representing a real challenge in achieving sustainability and resource efficiency. Currently, only a small fraction of food is redistributed back into the system. Yet, a considerable fraction of food waste generated is edible; thus, better planning, storage, and coordination amongst the different stakeholder
AU  - Facchini,E
AU  - Iacovidou,E
AU  - Gronow,J
AU  - Voulvoulis,N
DO  - 10.1080/10962247.2017.1405854
EP  - 899
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 2162-2906
SP  - 887
TI  - Food flows in the United Kingdom: the potential of surplus food redistribution to reduce waste
T2  - Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2017.1405854
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29215968
UR  - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10962247.2017.1405854
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/61122
VL  - 68
ER  -
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