Food waste and losses

The leading industrial sector in terms of turnover and jobs in France, the agri-food industry transforms raw materials from agriculture, livestock or fishing into food products.

A vital activity for the whole planet, but which faces many problems. In the line of sight: food waste and loss on which it is urgent to act.

From a human, ecological, but also economic point of view, their consequences are far from being anecdotal. 2.5 billion tons of food products are not consumed, according to the latest Cap Gemini report “ Reflect. Rethink. Reconsider. Why food waste is everybody's problem ”. And the trend is growing since this figure was 1.6 billion in 2018 and should grow by +40% by 2030.

Lucia Avila Bedregal, Consultant - Agriculture and Global Practical Food at the World Bank , says : "In the current context where food security is targeted, particularly because of COVID-19, current geopolitical tensions and rising food prices, food loss and waste is the most critical problem. Only the transformation of the global food system will ensure that the world will not be worse off in the future ”.

With nearly 811 million people (out of 7.8 billion inhabitants) suffering from malnutrition and 2.5 billion tonnes of lost food products, the human situation is alarming. But it is not the only one: the environmental impact of food loss and waste is also becoming critical.

Reduced to the scale of a country, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions it generates ( 8 to 10% of global emissions ) place it just behind the United States and China. At the same time, consumers, whose environmental awareness has been all the more alert since the Covid-19 pandemic, are worried. 72% of consumers are more aware of their level of waste compared to 33% in 2020 *.

Faced with these signals, the industry must tackle the subject head-on and propose solutions. Deciphering a changing economy.

Waste versus food loss, who is responsible?

Awareness of food waste and loss has become a real issue and is beginning to have an effect on consumer behavior.

Nearly half of French consumers (48%) expect information related to the environmental and social impact of their purchases, while 41% want to know more about the composition of the product they buy. They also consider that the sale of local products would reduce both waste and food losses and support it.

The study carried out by Capgemini confirms this global trend: between 2020 and 2022, a jump of + 80% of consumers looking for solutions to increase the shelf life of food products or even + 278% who are looking for homemade solutions to compost.

But while consumers are partly responsible for this waste, it is the industry that remains the main culprit of food loss and waste. According to a study by ADEME 2020 on the inventory of the masses of food waste and its management at the different stages of the food chain, the industry represents 67% of food losses and waste .

The urgency to act: large retailers are getting involved.

The financial cost of food waste is estimated at 1,000 billion dollars* on the industrial side. Innovative, inventive, organizations should be able to tap into this mountain of negative cash flow to reduce costs and improve sustainability . But also capitalize on new sources of income , with emerging opportunities from the redistribution of surplus food.

In this context, several major retail players have taken the lead and are getting involved. This is particularly the case of Carrefour , which has recently made several commitments: to promote the circular economy by using 100% reusable or recyclable packaging, to achieve carbon neutrality in its stores by 2040 or to double the supply of fruits and vegetables through short distribution channels by 2026.

Another example is the Système U brand, which promotes local products (15% of in-store sales) by working directly with producers in the regions.

Aware of the importance of the complex issues of the food industry, start-ups are also trying to bring play their part.

According to FoodTech Data Navigator , startups offering solutions to mitigate or prevent food waste raised more than €1.4 billion in funding in 2021 (+50% compared to 2020) .

The Klarys platform is the perfect example. Created in 2016, the company was born from the observation that exchanges (quotes, orders, etc.) between players in the agri-food sector on fresh food were neither standardized nor automated. One of the difficulties of the sector being that the product repositories are not standardized (the product attributes are not all transmitted) and do not make it possible to extract and analyze the data in a reliable way.

eProcurement platforms have a key role to play in combating food waste and loss.

Faced with the diversity of challenges that must be met, integrating a 360° procurement management solution is essential.

Klarys has developed the first eProcurement platform to digitize fresh food purchasing processes between a retailer and its suppliers. The tool manages all fresh products (seafood, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, etc.). All the data exchanged is automated and therefore allows the players in the sector to save considerable time and reduce their environmental impact. Thanks to dashboards allowing buyers to better manage their purchases, to analyze sales by reference but also to supply stores according to demand, food waste can be reduced.

Klarys also wants to help players in the fresh food sector to promote short distribution channels and organic products. The Klarys platform allows the establishment of restrictions on origins, species, etc. while taking seasonality into account to guarantee consumers strict compliance with sustainability rules. By relying on the recommendations of recognized associations, buyers can thus enable their central offices to purchase authorized products, reducing the risk of non-compliant products to zero.

Result : producers and distributors exchange standardized information in real time , and have access to reliable dashboards to better manage their transactions. Food waste and loss can be reduced.

Renaud Enjalbert, co-founder and CEO of Klarys says: “At Klarys, we are convinced that by streamlining supplier-retailer relations and exchanges, we will have an impact on food losses and waste. The platform's functionalities thus allow optimal visibility between orders, deliveries, stocks, sales... all in real time . Thanks to this, we allow to avoid the mismanagement of their inventory at each stage of the processes. Then, the domino effect is assured: thoughtful purchases lead to thoughtful orders that avoid the loss of physical products and therefore reduce waste. »

*Source : Cap Gemini report « Reflect. Rethink. Reconsider. Why food waste is everybody's problem ».