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This chapter highlights factors, such as stakeholder engagement and changes in operating processes, which can enable retailers to implement an alternative approach to recovering and redistributing fresh surplus food.

A successful fresh surplus food redistribution program was identified as part of a larger research project on food waste and redistribution. The “Buon Fine” program of a large Italian retailer (Coop Lombardia) was described by two senior executives who were interviewed for four hours using a semi-structured questionnaire. Collected information was triangulated with corporate reports and other publications.

Coop Lombardia implemented an expanded supply chain by cooperating with municipalities and food aid organizations. Such a process differed in important ways from the traditional “food bank” model. The latter organizations collected and distributed surplus food to disfavored populations.

The findings of this chapter will help senior executives of retail trade companies to improve the sustainability of their supply chain and help policymakers address food poverty to improve food security in their territory.

The paper investigates household food waste at domestic gatherings. It explains how surplus food and food waste are generated, managed and disposed of at gatherings hosted in homes. It reveals how hosts negotiate their social duties to be generous and moral duties to avoid food waste.

Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with female, Saudi citizens and analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke's approach. Goffman's theoretical concepts were deployed later in the analysis process to expose the complex nature of hospitality practices.

It reveals two main insights. First, the hosts' social duties involve staging the dinner table in line with hospitality norms. Such a staging almost always results in large amounts of surplus, but is necessary to manage guests' impressions and avoid criticism. Second, the enactment of moral and religious beliefs helps to divert surplus food away from waste toward charitable giving and, thence, to other forms of consumption. The findings reveal the social and moral purposes that surplus food serves; it enables people to be generous and charitable.

Such insights provide guidance to practitioners by revealing how providing mechanisms for people to enact their existing moral beliefs can keep surplus food away from the waste stream.

It contributes to the limited food waste literature on domestic gatherings and moral and religious beliefs. Also, using Goffman's concepts adds depth to such an under-theorized area and a new lens to look at food waste-related practices as they are embedded within social interactions.

This paper offers quantitative evidence on how surplus food, i.e. safe food that is not sold to the intended customers, is generated and recovered within Italian manufacturing and retail firms. The purpose of this paper is to enlighten the process through which the food supply chain firms come to donate surplus food-to-food banks.

Surplus food and recoverability were defined as the key terms of the problem. In total, 12 exploratory case studies were conducted to segment the manufacturing and retail sectors, to assess recoverability in each segment, and to establish the protocols for descriptive case studies. A multiple case-study approach was used and 83 firms were investigated.

The primary source of surplus food is shown to result from products reaching the internal sell-by date, i.e. the date by which manufacturers and warehouses must supply perishable products. Donation to food banks is found to be a relevant management practice in the ambient and chilled manufacturing segments and at retail distribution centres, while frozen food companies and retail stores are found to rely nearly exclusively on waste disposal.

The degree to which our findings are specific to Italy is an issue to investigate. Future research should target surplus food management in farming and food services, and assess the cost effectiveness of alternative management channels.

The paper highlights the changes required to increase the amount of food recovered by food banks. It also summarises the steps for establishing a structured procedure for managing surplus food within firms.

The paper offers quantitative evidence on a relatively untapped yet socially relevant topic, i.e. the upstream process of food recovery and donation.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of motives behind corporate giving and at finding out whether and when operational efficiency plays a major role in the case of surplus food donations by food supply chain companies.

A multiple case study methodology has been applied considering a sample of 16 food sector companies operating in Italy. Three cases have been analyzed in-depth to highlight the contextual factors that make cost savings possible and donations sizeable and regular.

The results show that the willingness of companies to reduce operational costs plays a relevant role in managerial decisions concerning the recovery and donation of unsold food, although to different degrees across the supply chain stages.

The paper shows that not only strategic and moral motives, but also economic efficiency concern plays an important role in the managerial decision-making process pertaining to surplus food donations.

New actors have emerged in the food supply chain in response to the increased awareness of food waste and the need to distribute surplus food. The purpose of this study is to analyse the different supply chain structures that have emerged to make surplus food available to consumers.

This study adopts a qualitative multiple-case study of three new surplus food actors: a surplus food platform, an online retailer and a surplus food terminal. Data sources included interviews, documentary evidence and participatory observations.

Three different types of actor constellations in surplus food distribution have been identified: a triad, a tetrad and a chain. Both centralised (for ambient products) and decentralised supply chain structures (for chilled products) have emerged. The analysis identified weak links amongst new actors and surplus food suppliers. The new actors have adopted the roles of connector, service provider and logistics service provider and the sub-roles of mediator, auditor and consultant.

This paper contributes to research on closed-loop or circular supply chains for the reuse of products in the context of surplus food distribution.

The reduction of food waste is still a pending issue that governments have still not resolved. In response to this problem mobile platforms are emerging that follow food ecology and the responsible consumption of food, and self-management of their access to allow the communication between people and their use of food. In this paper, the authors will analyze the main digital platforms that deal with solving this problem, especially those that fulfill a social commitment through the distribution and reduction of waste.

To provide solutions, the authors will address the importance of new technologies in the fight against waste, using digital platforms to manage food and to eliminate the loss in surplus products. To do this, the authors will first analyze from a theoretical point of view the concepts of “loss”, “waste” and “surplus product”, incorporating data of their impact between Spain and Italy. Next, the authors will analyze the influence of new technologies in the detection and distribution of products destined to become food waste. To carry out this qualitative research, the authors will apply the research strategy of theory building from multiple case studies (particularly 16 different digital platforms against food waste were analyzed), which is a methodological approach that uses cases as the basis to develop theory inductively.

The authors must make the public aware of the importance of being responsible consumers. To this end, the authors must disclose the problems associated with food waste and surplus product, presenting alternatives and new consumption habits. For this, it is necessary to collaborate and build synergies with organizations of different origins (consumers, producers and activists) involved in sustainable agrifood models. In this sense, digital platforms are essential tools to fight against food waste, preventing certain products from being considered unfit for human consumption. In this study, the authors suggest that, based on the review of the literature and the analysis of apps and blogs, the authors look for solutions to surplus and food waste both from the environment of the entrepreneur and the consumer and all using the new technologies.

The research has raised different limitations. On the one hand, it is a subject that has not been analyzed from a doctrinal point of view, so it is not easy to find bibliographic references. On the other hand, digital platforms that act on food waste are not cataloged. This has made it difficult to search for elements of analysis to obtain results in the work. Finally, the sample can vary in a short period of time since the digital platforms are in a boom, which means that they constantly change.

This work allows a theoretical approach to the concepts of “loss”, “wastage” and “surplus product”, incorporating data on its impact in Spain and Italy, comparing it with the rest of Europe while providing figures and data on their impact. On the other hand, it allows us to know how new technologies can help the detection and distribution of products destined to become food waste. Finally, there are examples of platforms that are offering service in different areas, incorporating a novel classification that allows us to know the differences depending on their origin and destination.

The originality of the work can be summarized in the following points: There are no doctrinal works that analyze in a combined way the food waste with the new technologies; The relationship with the 2030 Agenda in which responsible consumption is one of the achievements pursued by the United Nations, and the authors position the study’s research as an evidence of platforms that are currently working in the interest of reducing food waste. Furthermore, the authors provide an early classification of platforms based on their usability and objectives of reducing, reusing and recycling food.

This study aims to examine Taiwanese hospitality students’ self-reported professional competence in surplus food management and assess the usefulness of their university training in this area. Using the importance-performance analysis (IPA) method, it is possible to obtain a clearer understanding of the priority order of the items that require improvement and to identify which surplus food management competence items should be strengthened in the school curriculum and which items should be enhanced by the students.

This study used the questionnaire survey method. It evaluated seven dimensions covering 29 items related to surplus food management competencies of the kitchen staff. The evaluation was done using IPA to determine the relationship between professional competence (performance level) and courses provided (importance level). The factor coordinates were completed according to the means of personal qualifications and courses provided.

According to students’ self-assessment, the dimensions of “Personal moral attitude,” “Food handling attitude,” “Education and training attitude” and “Culinary knowledge” were located in the “Keep up the good work” quadrant, meaning that the students think that their surplus food management competence is relatively high and the courses provided are sufficient. Thus, these items have better performance at the present and they hope to maintain the status. However, “Menu analysis” and “Sanitation knowledge” were found to have low importance and low level of performance. Therefore, these two dimensions require attention in the course design and educational training.

The questionnaire responses were self-reported; this study assumed that all participants answered honestly. Future studies may include additional factors in the analysis, such as hospitality management, culinary skills, internship experience and work time that may affect the perceptions of students. Moreover, professional chefs could be surveyed to determine their professional competence and training needs.

The professional training that students receive determines, to a large extent, their performance in their jobs and the resulting stability of their employment. Therefore, improved competence gained through good-quality training can help students meet the demands of the hospitality industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how food aid providers in Sussex and Southwest London responded and managed during the pandemic.

The methodological approach consists of three inter-related layers. A qualitative description research approach based on naturalistic inquiry, supplemented by site visits and personal observations was used.

The pandemic catalysed dramatic, often positive, changes to the provision of food aid, with a move away from the traditional food bank model. It brought about increased coordination and oversight, as well as the upscaling of capabilities, infrastructure and provisions.

The paper contributes to the literature on food aid in the UK It provides evidence for how providers are transforming the sector for the better and potentially helping to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

“Social eating initiatives” are framed as a specific type of community-based food service that provides opportunities for people to eat together in local spaces using surplus food. These initiatives provide a meal that is fresh, affordable and more environmentally friendly than fast or convenience foods. In this research, we build upon the food well-being model to explore how food consumption is experienced in these community settings and the role of social eating projects in shaping the different dimensions of people's foodscapes. We adopted a community-based participatory approach and engaged in a series of dialogues with staff volunteers and coordinators at four “social eating initiatives”. We also conducted 45 interviews with service users and volunteers at three sites in the Midlands region.

The role of community-based food initiatives responding to hunger by utilising surplus food to feed local populations is often conceptualised critically. However, closer attention to the experiences of staff, volunteers and customers at these spaces, reveals them as sites where knowledge and experience of food is being developed with this contributing to a sense of well-being beyond nutrition. Shared food practices and eating together contribute to social capital and are important dimensions of food well-being that are significantly restricted by food insecurity. The “food well-being” model envisages a shift in focus from health, defined as the absence of illness, towards well-being as a positive relationship with food at the individual and societal level. In the concluding remarks of this article, it is suggested that this holistic conception is required to understand the role and function of social eating initiatives.

This study examines the relationships between the sizes of Coop Alleanza 3.0 retail outlets and indicators (in value) of surplus food (SF), real food donation (FD) and potential food waste (FW) from 2013 to 2019.

Retail outlets were grouped by size class and geographic macro-area. The authors adopt a procedure composed of Kendall's tau-b coefficient with ties (ttest) and the coefficient of determination (R²). The authors studied bread, pastries, fruits and vegetables as representative food categories.

Among the hypermarket group (Emilia-Romagna Region and those in group with Apulia Region), the study found the t-test with many high negative relationship and related R² high. Results showed that size significantly influenced the trends of the indicators for the food categories analyzed. This allowed the authors to hypothesize the presence of inefficiencies in these groups.

From a practical point of view, the procedure can provide Coop Alleanza 3.0, with a dashboard to analyze surplus food management (SFM) progress within its retail groups. This can provide a warning signal (WS) to trigger a management control system. If necessary, it can lead to corrective measures, such as internal optimization, by adopting appropriate work procedures. In this sense, the procedure is scalable and transferable at the international middle and micro-scales. This approach facilitates the transition to a retail circular economy transition.