Quantifying food waste in Hawaii’s food supply chain
Abstract
Food waste highlights a considerable loss of resources invested in the food supply chain. While it receives a lot of attention in the global context, the assessment of food waste is deficient at the sub-national level, owing primarily to an absence of quality data. This article serves to explore that gap and aims to quantify the edible weight, economic value, and calorie equivalent of food waste in Hawaii. The estimates are based on available food supply data for Hawaii and the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) loss-adjusted food availability data for defined food groups at three stages of the food supply chain. At its highest aggregated level, we estimate Hawaii’s food waste generation at 237,122 t or 26% of available food supply in 2010. This is equivalent to food waste of 161.5 kg per person, per annum. Additionally, this food waste is valued at US$1.025 billion annually or the equivalent of 502.6 billion calories. It is further evident that the occurrence of food waste by all three measures is highest at the consumer stage, followed by the distribution and retail stage, and is lowest at the post-harvest and packing stage. The findings suggest that any meaningful intervention to reduce food waste in Hawaii should target the consumer, and distribution and retail stages of the food supply chain. Interventions at the consumer stage should focus on the two protein groups, as well as fresh fruits and fresh vegetables.
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Current levels of waste occurring in the food supply chain are much greater than other industries and arise from the lack of willingness or inability to coordinate the various activities along the chain.
“However, current levels of waste occurring in the food supply chain are much greater than other industries and arise from the lack of willingness or inability to coordinate the various activities along the chain [21–23].”
From Progress towards Sustainable Utilisation and Management of Food Wastes in the Global Economy (2016) · cites this paper as [22]
Cites
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“non-edible share and cooking loss/uneaten food) (Buzby et al., 2014).”
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Waste: uncovering the global food scandal
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Loke, M. K., & Leung, P. (2013) · Agricultural and Food Economics · doi:10.1186/2193-7532-1-10 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Self-citationSeafood consumption and supply sources in Hawaii, 2000-2009
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Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data
Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., O’Connor, C., Östergren, K., & Cheng, S. (2017) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b00401 · Cited by 690 · see citing works
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“Moreover, existing studies emphasize the retail and consumer stages but overlook the upstream food supply chain (e.g., Hodges et al. [25], Fehr and Romão [26], Jones [27], Loke and Leung [28], Stenmarck et al. [29]).”
Background
- Authors
- Loke, M. K., & Leung, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- Corresponding author
- Loke, Matthew K
- ORCID
- Leung, PingSun
- Venue
- Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-10-07
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1076-1083
- ISSN
- 0734-242X (ISSN-L)
- 1096-3669
- OpenAlex
- W2189749603
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 3.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Supply Chain Traceability
- Keywords
- food waste, Hawaii, food supply chain, food waste quantification, consumer food waste, food waste reduction interventions, fresh produce
- MeSH terms
- Food Analysis, Food Supply, Garbage, Hawaii, Humans, Waste Management, Solid Waste
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