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The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitude of Italian consumers towards insect consumption. The use of insects as alternative protein source is claimed to be a solution to the environmental concerns over the production of animal proteins and to food security issues. Studies conducted in other European countries report that consumers are quite resistant to the introduction of insect-based products in their diet, although those who are more concerned about environmental and health show some interest towards insect consumption.

The authors conducted a survey with a 14-item questionnaire on 201 consumers, selected with a systematic sampling within a shopping mall. The factors influencing respondents’ attitude towards insect consumption were studied by means of a logistic regression.

Results show that 31 per cent of respondents were willing to try insects as food, while 5 per cent had already tried. Familiarity with foreign food, higher education and gender (male) positively influenced consumer attitude to entomophagy. Instead, the fear of insects and the idea that the taste might be disgusting were the main barriers to the willingness to try entomophagy, although these issues were mainly raised by consumers who had no direct experience with insects eating.

The paper is a first attempt of exploring the topic of entomophagy in the Italian context. Most of the results were consistent with previous research carried out in other countries. However, some barriers to insect consumption seem to be stronger in Italy than elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and critically examine food losses and waste quantification in supply chain, especially in studies that tackle all the supply chain activities in a real context.

This work employed a systematic literature review methodology on the extant literature focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2000 to 2019.

A systematic analysis of 117 articles reveals that downstream supply chains are studied to a greater extent than upstream supply chains, with an emphasis on consumer waste. The findings also highlight more than half of the articles focus on only one supply chain activity. In terms of the methodologies, surveys and modelling methods are the most used to measure food losses and wastes, adopt monetary, carbon emission and calorific metrics. This study highlights that while food losses and waste research remains a relevant field of study, it has yet to been fully explored.

The main limit is the adoption of a systematic review method for food losses and waste quantification in supply chain.

The results suggest that supply chain managers should invest in acquiring more knowledge about food losses in the global network. Upstream supply chains should be more studied and integrated with the downstream supply chains. Using combined direct and indirect methods has the potential to deal with the contradictions of quantification, the lack of data and reduce losses over time and space.

Based on this review as the first one focusing exclusively on quantification of food losses and waste in supply chain context, the authors develop an aspiring research agenda that proposes opportunities for future research.

Headings

1. We analyse 117 studies addressing food losses and waste quantification.

2. Downstream food supply chains are more studied than upstream food supply chains.

3. Case studies of food supply chains in developed countries are more prolific.

4. The main metric to quantify food losses and waste is weight.

We analyse 117 studies addressing food losses and waste quantification.

Downstream food supply chains are more studied than upstream food supply chains.

Case studies of food supply chains in developed countries are more prolific.

The main metric to quantify food losses and waste is weight.

The study analyses the role that open social innovation (OSI) perspective played for Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus (FBAO), a food bank in Italy, in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. It answers the following research question: how does a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulate the adoption of OSI practices to revamp the activities of FBAO and facilitate appropriate solutions to carry out its social mission?

This study employs a qualitative approach. It is based on a single case study.

The study shows how COVID-19 has stimulated the adoption of OSI practices to continue to meet the social mission, creating innovative projects or finding new ways to do the same things.

The study is based on a single case study.

The paper contributes insights into the literature on OSI, examining how inbound and outbound OSI mechanisms can modify business models and increase the adaptation capacity of food banks and their effectiveness. In addition, it provides a rich context in which the social value drivers provided by OSI are studied.

This paper applies the OSI to a food bank to evaluate what this action mode produces for the food bank during a health crisis. Specifically, this is the first paper that studies the COVID-19 crisis response of a food bank from the OSI perspective, focusing on the inbound and outbound OSI processes that characterized the entire network of relationships.