<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The urgent challenge of reaching sustainable development goals (including those pertaining to the limitation of food losses and waste) raises social awareness in this area. At the same time, a need arose to conduct studies focusing on the creation of a system of gathering and reporting data on food wastage and procedures helping to reduce its scale. The article presents and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of selected methods of data collection used for estimating of food losses in processing sectors, based on a case of the bakery and confectionery industry (the mass balance method, quantitative studies – questionnaire/survey methods, qualitative research – in-depth interviews, direct measurement). Attention was paid to the importance of methodological, technical, organisational and legal aspects. The starting points were the methods for certain links in the food chain identified in EU legal documents of 2019. Bakery and confectionery businesses make up around 40% of the number of entities operating in the agri-food sector in Poland, holding an important place in the food economy. The sector's losses are around 2.5% of the mass of the manufactured products, with the highest losses attributable to production departments in bakeries. The complexity of manufacturing processes of a wide range of bakery and confectionery products raises numerous problems with regard to measuring losses, especially in the methodological, technical, organisational and legal aspects. The mass balance method should be considered the most recommended for measuring losses in the bakery and confectionery sector. Collected knowledge can be used on a practical level, to create reporting systems about food losses in our country for selected food sectors. Such actions will allow meeting the reporting requirements of the European Commission (EC) and to monitor process of food loss reduction.</p>
</abstract>

The urgent challenge of reaching sustainable development goals (including those pertaining to the limitation of food losses and waste) raises social awareness in this area. At the same time, a need arose to conduct studies focusing on the creation of a system of gathering and reporting data on food wastage and procedures helping to reduce its scale. The article presents and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of selected methods of data collection used for estimating of food losses in processing sectors, based on a case of the bakery and confectionery industry (the mass balance method, quantitative studies – questionnaire/survey methods, qualitative research – in-depth interviews, direct measurement). Attention was paid to the importance of methodological, technical, organisational and legal aspects. The starting points were the methods for certain links in the food chain identified in EU legal documents of 2019. Bakery and confectionery businesses make up around 40% of the number of entities operating in the agri-food sector in Poland, holding an important place in the food economy. The sector's losses are around 2.5% of the mass of the manufactured products, with the highest losses attributable to production departments in bakeries. The complexity of manufacturing processes of a wide range of bakery and confectionery products raises numerous problems with regard to measuring losses, especially in the methodological, technical, organisational and legal aspects. The mass balance method should be considered the most recommended for measuring losses in the bakery and confectionery sector. Collected knowledge can be used on a practical level, to create reporting systems about food losses in our country for selected food sectors. Such actions will allow meeting the reporting requirements of the European Commission (EC) and to monitor process of food loss reduction.

Benefits and Limitations of Methods of Measuring Food Losses and Their Economic and Non-Economic Significance – The Case of Bakery and Confectionery Industry

Department of Economics and Economical Policy in Agribusiness

Poznań University of Life Sciences (PULS)

Department of Food Market and Consumer Research

Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW

Environmental Protection and Natural Resources

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The urgent challenge of reaching sustainable development goals (including those pertaining to the limitation of food losses and waste) raises social awareness...

Benefits and Limitations of Methods of Measuring Food Losses and Their Economic and Non-Economic Significance – The Case of Bakery and Confectionery Industry

Published Online: Sep 30, 2021

Page range: 20 - 28

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/oszn-2021-0011

Keywords
Food losses and waste, measuring methods, data collection, bakery and confectionery processing, prevention, reduction

© 2021 Elżbieta Goryńska-Goldmann et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Benefits and Limitations of Methods of Measuring Food Losses and Their Economic and Non-Economic Significance – The Case of Bakery and Confectionery Industry

Published Online: Sep 30, 2021

Page range: 20 - 28

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/oszn-2021-0011

KeywordsFood losses and waste, measuring methods, data collection, bakery and confectionery processing, prevention, reduction

© 2021 Elżbieta Goryńska-Goldmann et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Keywords
Food losses and waste, measuring methods, data collection, bakery and confectionery processing, prevention, reduction