Food consumption and wasted food

Abstract An increasing global population, an evolution in consumers’ needs, changes in consumption models, and a considerable generation of food waste pose serious challenges to the overall sustainability of food production and consumption. Life cycle assessment has a pivotal role of assessing benefits and burdens of the food system and has been applied extensively to assess food supply chains. In this chapter, the environmental impacts of food production and consumption of an average European citizen were assessed taking into account food waste generated along the food supply chain. In addition, the impact of food waste reduction and the adoption of different diets were estimated. Results show that avoidable food waste accounts for 15%–21% of the environmental impacts due to food consumption of average EU-28 citizen. The biggest share of the impacts is due to the agricultural phase, that is, due to additional cultivation because part of the food is not eaten. Environmental impacts of food consumption could be decreased 7%–10% by decreasing 50% food waste in all phases of the food supply chain. The highest decrease can be achieved in the impact categories: land use, freshwater ecotoxicity, and photochemical ozone formation potential. Environmental impacts are sensitive to alternative diets, especially when the diets combine nutritional and sustainability concerns.