Mitigating Food Waste in the Retail Supply Chain: Marketing Solutions

Food loss and waste is a global problem with an enormous magnitude. It has substantial economic, social, and environmental consequences. In this article, we focus on the problem of food waste, which is defined as loss of edible foods at the retail and consumption stages. Although not the main source of food waste in relative terms, retailers have a major role to play in food waste mitigation, by incentivizing upstream suppliers to reduce waste of resources and minimizing negative environmental impacts and by encouraging consumers to shift toward sustainable purchase and consumption behaviors. Given the close connection of marketing to retail operations and consumer behaviors, marketing scholars have the opportunity to make significant contributions in addressing the global food waste challenge. Our discussion focuses on how to mitigate food waste in retail outlets and by consumers through leveraging digital technologies and marketing knowledge. We first outline the economic, social, and environmental impacts of food waste, and then synthesize current mitigating practices by retailers. We discuss several technologies that are particularly important for mitigating food waste. Finally, we propose five areas that offer opportunities for future research and actions on food waste mitigation.