A Review of Empirical Applications on Food Waste Prevention & Management

Abstract: Food waste has a significant detrimental economic, environmental and social impact. Recent efforts in HCI re-search have examined ways of influencing surplus food waste management. In this paper, we conduct a research survey to investigate and compare the effectiveness of existing approaches in food waste management throughout its lifecycle from agricultural production, post-harvest handling and storage, processing, distribution and consumption. The objectives of the survey are 1) to identify methods in food waste management, 2) their area of focus, 3) the ICT techniques they apply, 4) and the food waste lifecycle they target. In addition, we analyse if 5) they provide an open access API for food waste data analysis. Based on the literature analysis, we then highlight their pros and cons with respect to applications in food waste management. The implications of this research could present a new opportunity for interested stack-holders and future technologies to play a key role in reducing domestic and national food waste.