254 J. Szulecka et al.
been largely ignored’ (Halloran, Clement, Kornum, Bucatariu & Magid,
2014, p. 295), and that the issue started to appear on political agendas and in
public debates only in the 2010s. Although reducing food waste seems a winwin situation for consumers, our planet and industries, it is a very complex
issue, requiring diverse and well- tailored governance measures. It is known
that the scale and occurrence of food waste in the value chain depend on the
economic situation, climate, local culture and consumer habits. There are also
significant tensions between the food security and resource efficiency perspectives (Hartikainen, Mogensen, Svanes & Franke, 2018, p. 509). In
medium- and high- income countries, food waste is mainly caused by consumer behaviour and a lack of coordination between different actors in the
supply chain. While the first relates to poor purchase planning, food labelling
(‘best- before dates’) and customers’ expectations regarding a wide range of
fresh products and discounts for buying more, the latter is a systemic failure.
This can be illustrated by farmer–buyer agreements that specify certain
product characteristics related to appearance (FAO, 2011), retailer rights to
return unsold products or a lack of knowledge on how to handle certain
products (Stenmarck et al., 2011).
In the last decade, many international, national and local initiatives were
created in order to address the food waste problem. The UN’s Sustainable
Development Goal 12, aiming to ‘ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’, lists several targets related to food waste. It foresees that by
2030 we ought to be able to ‘halve per capita global food waste at the retail
and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply
chains, including post- harvest losses’ and ‘substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse’, but also ‘encourage
companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable
practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle’
(SDG, 2015).
Many initiatives exist on the supra- national level, e.g. the multistakeholder Save Food Initiative (of FAO, UNEP, Messe Düsseldorf and
Interpack packaging company), with their Think Eat Save campaign (SaveFood, 2018). Different solutions for tackling waste are being explored
upstream and downstream of the production chain, in high- and low- income
countries.
However, no single blueprint for tackling the problem exists, and this is
especially visible on the national level, where a number of domestic political,
economic and cultural factors influence the way food waste is tackled. This
chapter provides a comparative analysis of the governance and the resulting
policies and tools introduced by three high- income Nordic countries:
Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In all three cases, the food waste issue has
been relatively high on the political agenda for almost a decade, and the
different governance frameworks that have emerged to reduce food waste
provide interesting insights into food waste reduction strategies. Even though
the three share many similarities in terms of political, cultural and economic
been largely ignored’ (Halloran, Clement, Kornum, Bucatariu & Magid,
2014, p. 295), and that the issue started to appear on political agendas and in
public debates only in the 2010s. Although reducing food waste seems a winwin situation for consumers, our planet and industries, it is a very complex
issue, requiring diverse and well- tailored governance measures. It is known
that the scale and occurrence of food waste in the value chain depend on the
economic situation, climate, local culture and consumer habits. There are also
significant tensions between the food security and resource efficiency perspectives (Hartikainen, Mogensen, Svanes & Franke, 2018, p. 509). In
medium- and high- income countries, food waste is mainly caused by consumer behaviour and a lack of coordination between different actors in the
supply chain. While the first relates to poor purchase planning, food labelling
(‘best- before dates’) and customers’ expectations regarding a wide range of
fresh products and discounts for buying more, the latter is a systemic failure.
This can be illustrated by farmer–buyer agreements that specify certain
product characteristics related to appearance (FAO, 2011), retailer rights to
return unsold products or a lack of knowledge on how to handle certain
products (Stenmarck et al., 2011).
In the last decade, many international, national and local initiatives were
created in order to address the food waste problem. The UN’s Sustainable
Development Goal 12, aiming to ‘ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’, lists several targets related to food waste. It foresees that by
2030 we ought to be able to ‘halve per capita global food waste at the retail
and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply
chains, including post- harvest losses’ and ‘substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse’, but also ‘encourage
companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable
practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle’
(SDG, 2015).
Many initiatives exist on the supra- national level, e.g. the multistakeholder Save Food Initiative (of FAO, UNEP, Messe Düsseldorf and
Interpack packaging company), with their Think Eat Save campaign (SaveFood, 2018). Different solutions for tackling waste are being explored
upstream and downstream of the production chain, in high- and low- income
countries.
However, no single blueprint for tackling the problem exists, and this is
especially visible on the national level, where a number of domestic political,
economic and cultural factors influence the way food waste is tackled. This
chapter provides a comparative analysis of the governance and the resulting
policies and tools introduced by three high- income Nordic countries:
Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In all three cases, the food waste issue has
been relatively high on the political agenda for almost a decade, and the
different governance frameworks that have emerged to reduce food waste
provide interesting insights into food waste reduction strategies. Even though
the three share many similarities in terms of political, cultural and economic