Reducing the huge volumes of Post-Harvest (PH) Food Losses and Waste (FLW) is one of the key strategies for SDG 12.3 (Zero Hunger).

Quantifying FLW is essential for identifying hotspots in FLW and assessing effectiveness of FLW reducing interventions and system changes. Measuring is one of the means to identify the hotspots to select the most appropriate FLW reducing interventions. However, measuring is time, data and resource intensive, which prevents broad implementation of FLW monitoring. Moreover, FLW measuring is often disturbed by lacking data and systemic faults. This hinders good comparison of chain configurations. For instance, an intervention may shift losses from one stage to another stage along the supply chain. Adequate monitoring of both stages is essential for evaluating effectiveness of the intervention.

Considering that the overall goal is FLW reduction, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) has developed a new approach allowing to move faster to the implementation of interventions than many traditional approaches which often require substantial means and time to collect FLW data via direct measurements at all stages of the supply chain, without differentiating whether all the stages are critical control point for losses/waste or not. The WFBR approach includes a pragmatic protocol for PH FLW monitoring and associated GHG emissions. Key asset of this protocol is the reduction of direct measurements and data collection to the most essential (for instance the stages with high FLW or uncertainty on FLW, or stages which have been identified as being of high risk in the supply chain) and use of secondary information or expert-estimates for missing data. It is intended to boost FLW monitoring (lowering drawbacks mentioned above) and to help pointing out causes and potential interventions for FLW.

Efficient Food Loss & Waste Protocol

WFBR has formulated a supporting protocol, that includes questionnaires and data registration tables for each stage. A questionnaire that supports identification of causes and potential interventions or system changes (phase 5 and 6) is more product-specific.

Protocol - Excel File

AGRO-CHAIN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS (ACE) CALCULATOR

Wageningen University & Research Link

Efficient Protocol Webinar Presentation