TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 22 December 2022 DOI 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 Economic benefit and social OPEN ACCESS impact derived by a food loss prevention strategy in the EDITED BY Luigi Ranieri, Università Lum Jean Monnet, Italy REVIEWED BY Konstadinos Abeliotis, vegetable sector: A spatial and Harokopio University, Greece P. E. Rajasekharan, Indian Institute of Horticultural temporal analysis at the regional Research (ICAR), India *CORRESPONDENCE level Xavier Gabarrell Durany xavier.gabarrell@uab.cat SPECIALTY SECTION Pietro Tonini 1 , Pere Muñoz Odina 1,2 , This article was submitted to Francesco Orsini 3 and Xavier Gabarrell Durany 1,2 * Sustainable Food Processing, a section of the journal 1 Sostenipra Research Group (2017 SGR 1683), Unitat de excelencia Maria de Maetzu MDM Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems CEX2019-000940-M, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2 Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental RECEIVED 13 September 2022 Engineering, School of Engineering, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, ACCEPTED 07 December 2022 3 Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Technologies, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università PUBLISHED 22 December 2022 di Bologna, Bologna, Italy CITATION Tonini P, Odina PM, Orsini F and Gabarrell Durany X (2022) Economic benefit and social impact derived by a Introduction: Reduction of food loss in the horticultural sector is critical to food loss prevention strategy in the simultaneously support the transition toward a diet with higher consumption vegetable sector: A spatial and temporal analysis at the regional level. of vegetables and the achievement of policy goals aimed at halving the quantity Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:1043591. of wastage by 2030. However, the lack of precise information and the presence doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 of múltiple interconnected factors makes it difficult to assess the potential COPYRIGHT socioeconòmic benefits and therefore the decision-making process of food © 2022 Tonini, Odina, Orsini and Durany. This is an open-access article loss reduction strategies. distributed under the terms of the Methods: A case study approach has been used to assess the econòmic loss Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or and nutrional impact of food loss in the horticulture primary production. The reproduction in other forums is selection of the main vegetable products was based on an historical series permitted, provided the original while econòmic and nutritional impact were estimated starting from national author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original and European indicator. publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic Results: The food loss correspond to 26% of the total production and 14% of practice. No use, distribution or the total agricultural production econòmic value. The social analysis confirm reproduction is permitted which does the possibility of redistributing food loss among the population even in the not comply with these terms. most critical months and areas. Discussion: The combination of social and econòmic indicator resulted essential to provide key information at the decision-making level to pave the way for the elaboration of short- and long-term food loss reduction strategies. Indeed, no single-bullet strategy can be applied to overcome the problem of food loss as many actor with different needs are involved. KEYWORDS food loss, food waste, primary production, horticulture, city-region food system, economic impact, nutritional impact Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 01 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 1. Introduction As a source of essential nutrients and fiber, vegetables are crucial components of healthy diets, e.g., reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity, among others (Gakidou et al., 2018). Recently, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, and Health released the Planetary healthy diet, promoting the consumption of 300 grams of non-starchy vegetables per day (Willett et al., 2019), and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended a minimum daily intake of vegetables and fruits of 400 grams per person (WHO/FAO, 2004). However, their importance in human nutrition and global vegetable intake remains low, particularly in low-income households and among young people (Micha et FIGURE 1 al., 2015), making it a political priority to increase vegetable Identification of the exporting (red) and domestic-supply (green) countries in the European community based on the relationship intake during the coming decades. However, the promotion of between the consumption per capita of vegetables (excluding consumption must consider the high degree of the perishability potatoes) in Europe (EEA, 2017) and the amount of product harvested per person in 2020 (EUROSTAT, 2020) (author source). of these products to ensure their supply and not generate negative impacts. Indeed, the vegetable sector is responsible for the highest quantity of food waste and loss originating at the global (Gustavsson et al., 2013), regional (Caldeira et al., 2019), market saturation, and technical inefficiencies as the main and national levels, as, for instance, in Spain (Garcia-Herrero causes within the primary production stage. These multitudes et al., 2018) and France (Redlingshöfer et al., 2017). Therefore, of triggering factors and the annual variability of food loss the reduction of food waste and loss in the vegetable sector is make crucial the identification of hot spot areas and periods critical to envisage a sustainable diet and achieve policy goals where prioritize data collection and interventions. An intuitive to halve the quantity of wastage by 2030 (United Nations, 2015; and rapid characterization of the context can be made based European Commission, 2020). Among the steps of the value on the market orientation of the vegetable system through the chain, the agricultural sector is characterized by the highest relationship between consumption and production. As seen quantity of food loss available (Garrone et al., 2014), which raises from Figure 1, in European countries, Mediterranean countries concerns about possible strategies to reintegrate into the food such as Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands are characterized by the value chain (Facchini et al., 2018). However, the difficulties in highest imbalance between production and consumption and the quantification process and the multiple triggering factors thus are prioritized for food loss strategies. affecting the system hamper the development of strategies in The several causes and actors involved in food loss make primary production (Stenmarck et al., 2016). The high variability it difficult to assess socioeconomic benefits. The difficulties of the results is related to the lack of harmonization in the are related to the conflicts between different policy goals, definition (Fabi et al., 2021) and the different scopes and such as a reduction in resource stress (Kuiper and Cui, quantification methods applied (Corrado and Sala, 2018) in 2021), increases in farm welfare, and enhanced food security the literature. In particular, the main differentiating elements (de Gorter et al., 2021). Following the rule of supply and are when the product is considered food and if the analysis demand, the increased availability of the product due to should consider the food as a whole (i.e., resource efficiency) reduced food waste would negatively impact the crop’s price or just the edible part (i.e., nutritional efficiency). In addition and therefore the farmer’s profit. However, the decrease in to the high variability of the literature, the factors that lead product availability in the market would positively affect the to the generation of food loss are external to the producer’s agricultural price with a negative impact on food cost and thus controls, making it hard to forecast the quantity from one food security. Furthermore, the achievement of net impact in season to the other (Parfitt et al., 2010). Canali et al. (2017) economics and society is hindered by the potential cascade identified three typologies of causes based on the producer’s effect on other value chains, external markets, and territories ability to act as inefficiencies at the business/consumer level not involved in the food loss reduction strategies. The degree (i.e., Micro causes), disorganization of the value chain (i.e., of the cascade effect is affected by the price elasticity of Meso causes), and the systemic problems that affect the food supply and demand and how price effects are transmitted system (i.e., Macro causes). Among them, Diaz-Ruiz et al. (2018) vertically (i.e., within the value chain) and horizontally (i.e., selected the strict regulation of food quality and appearance, across countries) (Cattaneo et al., 2021). For this reason, the weighting of the private and public costs and the benefit of Abbreviations: AVL, avoidable food loss; EVFL, economic value of food potential intervention from food loss reduction is fundamental loss; PAL, possible avoidable food loss; UVL, unavoidable food loss. to facilitating collaborative work within the actors involved in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 02 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 the value chain (Filimonau and Ermolaev, 2021). Regarding the economic impact, the assessment of the magnitude of the profit loss has been calculated for one specific value chain (WRAP, 2017) or at the agricultural level (Kotykova and Babych, 2019) to target the investments and incentives where they are most needed and where the potential for improvements is the greatest. However, the indicator number of meals wasted per person (Cooper et al., 2018) or per quantity of nutritional value lost (Chen et al., 2020) has been used to identify the social impact of food loss in different areas. However, further quantitative evidence needs to be included within the analysis to envisage the achievement of a plant-rich diet and the reduction of the losses in the food system. To address this problem, the research aimed to provide different quantitative socioeconomic evidence that can be used in a complementary way to facilitate the decision- FIGURE 2 Identification of the exporting (red) and domestic-supply (green) making process in food loss strategies. The present study provinces in Catalonia based on the relationship between the was focused on Catalonia, Spain, which recently introduced a consumption per capita of vegetables (excluding potatoes) in Catalonia (MAGRAMA, 2014) and the amount of product pioneer regulation in Europe aimed to foster the recollection harvested per person in 2020 (DARP, 2020) (author source). of data on food loss and facilitate food donations for social purposes (Parlament de Catalonia, 2020). The geographical scope was provided to encompass the cultural and agronomic characteristics of the area analyzed (Wiskerke and Carey, 2015). official population of Catalonia is ∼7 million, divided into Additionally, the case-study approach helps to give a greater four provinces characterized by different population densities: understanding of a real-world case by implying the involvement Barcelona (743 people/km²), Girona (132 people/km²), Lleida of important contextual conditions related to the analyzed case (36 people/km²), and Tarragona (129 people/km²) (IDESCAT, (Yin and Davis, 2007). The research proposes a systematic 2020). Due to its location in the western Eurasian continent, process to select the crops and to identify temporal (i.e., the climate is mainly the Mediterranean, characterized by mild month) and spatial (i.e., province) hotspots based on the social winters and hot and dry summers with daily annual irradiation and economic variables. The analysis overcomes the previous of 14.5 MJ (ICAEN, 2000). The geographical variety of the economic studies providing a clear distinction between the area leads to ample variation in the annual mean temperatures economic value of commercial and edible-but-not-commercial throughout the year, from 0C to 17◦ C, and precipitation, from vegetables to estimate the cost and benefit ratio. In addition, the 400 to 1,200 mm (Vide, 1992). The final vegetable production consumption of the specific vegetable product was assessed to reported in 2020 has a total economic value of 144 million further advance the feasibility of changing dietary habits within euros (9% of the total final agricultural production), mainly a population to mitigate food loss at a regional level. Finally, generated in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona (75% of the methodological process emphasizes which data were needed the hectares used). Figure 2 shows the relationship between the and how to obtain them to analyze food loss in the horticultural production and consumption of vegetables in the four provinces sector considering the annual variability of the phenomenon and of Catalonia. The highest recorded imports are notably June, the diversity of production systems around the world. July, August, and December, and the region is a net importer of vegetable products of tomato, cabbage, and cauliflower. In 2. Materials and methods particular, the province of Barcelona is responsible for almost two-thirds of all imports; Tarragona is a net exporter, while The following paragraphs describe the case study (2.1), in Girona and Lleida, imports and exports are balanced (e.g., define the food loss (2.2), the methodology applied to select the Girona and Lleida) (IDESCAT, 2021). main vegetable products and the quantification process for the food loss at the primary production stage (2.3). After that, the economic benefit (2.4) and social impacts (2.5) were assessed to 2.2. Definition of food loss identify the most critical products, months, and provinces. Food loss refers to the quantity of crop that was originally produced for human consumption but then directed to non- 2.1. Case study food use or waste disposal (e.g., feed for animals, biomass input to waste treatment, disposal in a municipal solid waste The Catalonia region is an autonomous community of Spain incinerator) (HLPE, 2014). The starting point was set when located in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula (Figure 1). The the plant was “ready to harvest”, including in the food loss Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 03 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 definition the product not harvested and stopped before the that mobilizes many intermediaries. These initiatives have a postharvest operations. conventional production system and sell to large distributors or organizations of producers, thus representing most of the horticultural producers in Catalonia and Europe. The well- 2.3. Selection of the main vegetable structured production system and the systematic organization of products the sales that characterize these farms ensure more reliable data on food loss (Delgado et al., 2017), limiting the underestimation Currently, the global food loss index selects the 10 most of food loss commonly in qualitative assessments (Baker important vegetables based on the mass for each country et al., 2019). Finally, the results of the focus group discussion to perform the quantification (FAO, 2019). However, this conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery, Livestock, methodology may rule out important crops due to external and Environment in collaboration with 100 farmers aimed to factors such as market demand and local climate (Beausang assess the loss generated during the harvest were taken for the et al., 2017) that can affect the total amount of production. To Unavoidable food Loss (UVL). A single value of 5% based on a avoid this issue, the crops included in this research have been scenario of optimal production using the current best available identified as the lowest common denominators of a time series technology for harvest in Spain was applied for all the crops applying different percentiles to the yearly vegetable production. selected. The data are consistent with the only other value Since the decision of the percentile depends on the level of found in the literature (Beretta et al., 2013). The percentages detail of the analysis, the 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, of food loss provided in this research refer to the marketed and 90th percentiles were selected to observe how the number yield obtained by the subtraction between total agricultural of products and the mass percentage of selected vegetable production and the amount of self-consumption provided by production changed. The time series selected had durations of the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food 1, 3, 6, and 9 years to observe how the number of products (DARP, 2020). Monte Carlo analysis has been applied to provide and percentage of selected vegetable production changed. The a probabilistic approach in the research and realized a sensitivity year 2020 was used as a reference for the analysis, and the time analysis (Raychaudhuri, 2008). The probability of minimum and series were created as follows: 1 year (i.e., 2020), 3 years (i.e., maximum values followed a normal distribution in which the 2020–2018), 6 years (2020–2015), and 9 years (2020–2012). data used in the analysis have a 40% probability of occurring. Finally, the allocation per month was realized based on the percentage of harvested product disaggregated per product and 2.4. Food loss quantification province implemented at the national level (MAPA, 2019). The study was based on a qualitative assessment in collaboration with The quantification of food loss has been estimated at the most important organization of producers and cooperatives provincial and regional levels based on agricultural production. in Spain. Agricultural production is defined as the sum of the overall production, including food loss, self-consumption, and products sold1 Food loss is calculated and divided based on the causes 2.5. Economic assessments of food loss of its generation, such as unharvested products (Avoidable Loss), quality sorting (Possibly Avoidable Loss), and technical The economic value of the products has been estimated problems (Unavoidable Loss) (Quested and Johnson, 2009). by multiplying the quantity of food loss and its economic Data relating to avoidable food loss (AVL) have been retrieved value. Different economic values have been given to marketable from field quantitative studies (Hartikainen et al., 2018; Johnson products (AVL, UVL) and unmarketable products (PAL). The et al., 2018; Baker et al., 2019). The methodology applied price perceived at the farm level has been assigned to AVL was based on random soil sampling and aims to quantify the and UVL as the product fit with trade regulations (GENCAT, commercial and non-commercial crops left in the harvested 2021). The perceived price does not include transport costs, the fields. The Possibly Avoidable food Loss (PAL), food loss subsidies that farmers may receive, conditioning, or the indirect value has been estimated through face-to-face interviews with taxes or fees that may affect the transactions. However, for PAL, a company representative, typically a field manager or an the economic value was equal to the cost of production of the agronomist. The farms involved in the present research were horticultural product, as the product was not marketable. The proxies of the long supply chain, a globalized production model unit costs of production (e/Kg) were calculated by dividing production cost per hectare available for tomatoes, onions, 1 Regulation (EC) No 543/2009. European Parliament and of the and general vegetables (XCAC, 2019) by the agricultural yield. Council of 18 June 2009 concerning crop statistics and repealing Council Each crop production cost refers to the sum of the production Regulations (EEC) No 837/90 and (EEC) No 959/93. Available online at: factors needed to carry out the activity, such as fertilizers, http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/543/oj. pesticides, water, seeds and plants, labor, and plot rent. Detailed Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 04 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 information on the unit cost of production per crop per province is provided in Supplementary Table S1. The economic value of food loss (EVFL) came from Equation (1). X    f (AVLj,i + UVLj,i )∗ Pxj,i + PASj,s ∗ Px∗j,i  EVFS = Eq.1 where: AVSj,i = avoidable food loss of product j in province i. PASj,i = possibly avoidable food loss of product j in province i. Pxj,i = price perceived by the farmer of product j in province FIGURE 3 i during 2020. Comparison between the number of products and share of total ∗ = cost of production of product j in province i horticultural production in the time series of 3 years Pxj,i (2020–2018). during 2020. The economic value of food surpluses was used to estimate the benefits of promoting alternative channels for the sale of edible food, improving the match between supply and demand 2013). The purchase of the vegetable product was calculated and the investment in new technologies and methodologies from the annual Spanish national purchase survey based on for crop harvest. To estimate the magnitude of the investment 12000 households, of which 14% were from Catalonia (MAPA, compared to the value of horticultural production, the economic 2019). Finally, 13% of food waste is applied to the potential benefit generated by food loss reduction strategies was divided amount of vegetables available for consumption (De Laurentiis per the final horticultural production in Catalonia in 2020 et al., 2018) to assess the increase in vegetable intake in the (IDESCAT, 2022). Final vegetable production is a European population. The feasibility of the increase in consumption has indicator obtained by adding subsidies to the price received by been assessed considering the recommended 300 grams of the producer of the product free of tax during the accounting vegetable intake per day provided by the planetary diet (Willett period and before processing2 . et al., 2019). 2.6. Quantification of the social impact 3. Results The rationale for this analysis was to highlight the potential The analysis of the historical series identified the 70th contrast between the policy of reducing food losses and the percentile and the time series of 3 years and the minimum ability of the population to increase the consumption of number of years to be considered for the identification of a specific vegetable product. The Meal Days wasted (MD) 11 vegetable products accounting for 77% of total vegetable indicator was selected to identify the social impact of food loss production (i.e., 185,000 million tons) in Catalonia during 2020 generation corresponding to the number of wasted purchased (Figure 3). days of a specific basket of product for the entire population in The selection of this percentile was done because after this a selected area (Cooper et al., 2018). This indicator was based percentile, the agricultural mass added by each product was on the edible fraction of the food loss available for consumption below or equal to 5% with respect to the contribution of 5–10% and the amount of vegetable product purchased. The fraction and 15–20% in the previous percentile. The results highlighted of edible and inedible products was calculated based on the the concentration of the agricultural mass in three products (i.e., data provided by the National Institute of Nutrition (Fundación 90th) and 4–6 products (i.e., 80th), representing 44–47% and Española de la Nutrición, 2018). A percentage of food loss equal 59–63% of the total agricultural mass. to 17% along the food value chain has been applied to the The 1-year time series was discarded because applying the total amount of food loss to estimate the potential amount of 70th percentile results in more product (i.e., 13) and a slight vegetable product available for consumption (Gustavsson et al., increase in the percentage of vegetable production covered (81%), while no differences were detected between the 3-year 2 Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the time series and the other time series. The results highlighted the Council economic accounts for agriculture in the Community. Economic importance of carrying out crop selection based on a time series accounts for agriculture in the Community. Available online at: http:// of at least 3 years to avoid the inclusion and exclusion of crops data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2004/138/oj. due to external drivers such as price increases or severe weather Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 05 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 damage. More information on the analysis of the time series (15%), tomato (10%), and onion (15%) because they have a and a percentile is included in Supplementary Tables S3–S5. The longer storage period in warehouses; therefore, the producer eleven crops identified for the analysis were cabbage, lettuce, tends to minimize the entry of damaged or imperfect products. watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini cucumber, tomato, artichoke, As vegetables are highly perishable and the quantity was difficult cauliflower, onion, and green bean. Table 1 shows the food loss to forecast, none of the companies interviewed reported selling indicator collected for the present study resulting from the the misshapen product to alternative channels or sending them literature review (AVL) and the qualitative data collection (PAL) for processing. The 11 crops were responsible for the generation carried out for the analysis. of almost 46.5 million tons of food loss, corresponding to Cabbage and cucumber aside, the percentage of unharvested 26% of the agricultural production. Monte Carlo analysis has products was higher than the percentage discarded for quality shown a high variability of the results with a maximum of reasons. The products that were most discarded were zucchini 65 million tons (35%), a minimum of 35 million tons (19%) TABLE 1 Avoidable food loss and possibly avoidable food loss through literature review and semiconstructed interview. Avoidable food loss (% marketed product) Possibly avoidable food loss (% marketed product) Crop Av. Min Max Source Av. Min Max N.farmer Tomato 8% 3% 13% Baker et al., 2019 10% 5% 20% 5 Cabbage 1% 0% 2.5% Johnson et al., 2018 7% 5% 15% 6 Lettuce 43% 17% 75% Baker et al., 2019 5% 0% 10% 8 Cucumber 12% 10% 18% Hartikainen et al., 2018 15% 10% 20% 2 Watermelon 56% 47% 71% Baker et al., 2019 1% 0% 5% 2 Pumpkin 8% 0% 20% Baker et al., 2019 5% 0% 20% 5 Onion 5% 0% 19% Hartikainen et al., 2018 10% 5% 20% 5 Cauliflower 34% 13% 87% Baker et al., 2019 5% 0% 10% 3 Green beans 21% 6% 37% Baker et al., 2019 2% 0% 5% 3 Arthichoke 5% 4% 6% Baker et al., 2019 2% 0% 5% 5 Zucchini 7% 6% 8% Johnson et al., 2018 15% 25% 10% 2 FIGURE 4 Spatial and temporal analysis of the economic impact of food loss in Catalonia, calculated as the sum of possibly avoidable food surpluses (PAS) and avoidable food surpluses (AVS). Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 06 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 TABLE 2 Meal Days wasted and the increase in vegetable intake allocated per product and month in the province of Tarragona. Jan Feb Mar Ap Ma Ju Jul Au Se Oc Nov Dec Increase of vegetable intake (kg/year) Arthicoke 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cabbage 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Cauliflower 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 Cucumber 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Green bean 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lettuce 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 1 2 2 0 0 3 Onion 0 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Pumpkin 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Tomato 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 3 1 0 0 0 2 Watermelon 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 2 Zucchini 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Increase of 1 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 0 1 14 vegetable intake (Kg/month) and a standard deviation of ∼3,000 tons (2%). The analysis the annual increase in vegetable intake was 14 kg/person, with highlighted the negligible effect of the unique value of UVL a maximum increase of 30% during the most critical months retrieved at the national level and the dependence on the of June, July, and August (Table 2). This increase would bring results by the AVL value. In particular, the value of unharvested the vegetable intake to 290 grams per day, just 4% less than the products of watermelon and lettuce had the highest impact recommendation provided by the Planetary Diet, mostly derived on the overall sum. The EVFS had a value of almost 19 from lettuce, onion, watermelon, and tomato crops. These million euros, corresponding to 14% of the economic value of results confirm the possibility of redistributing food loss among horticultural production in 2020. The economic impact chiefly the population even in the most critical months and areas. originated from the AVL (61%) and to a lesser extent the PAL (21%) and the UVL (17%). At the provincial level, two-thirds of the impact was allocated to Tarragona (41%), and Barcelona 4. Discussion (34%) was mostly concentrated during the summer season when The analysis showed how to perform a multiyear analysis major production takes place (Figure 4). This impact is mainly for the selection of the crop and highlights the possibility of due to the food loss derived from watermelon in Tarragona reducing the number of crops from 10 (FAO, 2019) to 3–6 during June and July as well as tomato and lettuce in Barcelona based on the details and scope of the analysis. The rationale in June and September. These three crops represent almost half behind the methodology was to provide a systematic way to of the entire economic value and 40% of the total amount of select the proxies in the food loss analysis and reduce the food loss. amount of data to be processed by the selection of the shortest However, the social impact analysis showed a huge time series. The identification of the main important crop difference between the provinces with the highest vegetable was fundamental to supporting the implementation of food production, such as Tarragona (68) and Barcelona (8). Low- loss reduction strategies (Mandyck and Schultz, 2015). The density rural areas where the detected low economic value of analysis confirms the importance of food loss in the primary food loss, such as Girona and Lleida, have shown almost 30 days sector by reporting maximum and minimum values similar of MD close to the average value obtained for the entire region to those calculated by Gustavsson et al. (2013) (20%) and of Catalonia (33). The highest impacts were observed during the by Caldeira et al. (2019) (30%) for the European Union. In summer seasons, and the majority of the impact was based on a particular, uncollected products account for more than half of few products. In particular, the highest impacts were allocated the waste generated, underlining the need to take them into to onion (17) in Lleida, tomato in Girona (9) and Barcelona account in future food loss studies to avoid underestimating (3) and lettuce (14) in Tarragona. The increase in vegetable the phenomenon by 40–70%. This high variability of AVL purchase to reduce food loss corresponds to 18% of the actual due to external factors such as price (Baker et al., 2019) purchase in Tarragona, 8–9% in Lleida, and Girona, and 2% in and climatic events (Beausang et al., 2017) partially explains Barcelona. Considering Tarragona as the most critical province, the difference between food loss studies applying the same Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 07 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 definition or methodology and justifies the need for the use characteristics of the different typologies of food loss, economic of a probabilistic approach in future analyses. The analysis and social impacts have been estimated to identify spatial and pointed out the high contribution of single products to the temporal hotspots in the region of Catalonia. The possibility of total amount of food loss and identified temporal and spatial mitigating food loss through the redistribution of the selected hotspots that should be prioritized for short- and long-term crops has been confirmed. Additionally, the economic benefit of interventions. Short-term strategies are aimed at mitigating food measuring the scale of investment aimed at reducing food loss loss through the commercialization of ugly but-good crops in has been provided. The combination of these two indicators was the local food system (Hingston and Noseworthy, 2020), the essential to provide key information at the decision-making level redistribution of surpluses to food banks (Kinach et al., 2020), to pave the way for the elaboration of short- and long-term food or the conversion of surpluses to fooders for animals (Acheson, loss reduction strategies. 2016). The quantification of the social impact helped to calibrate the capacity of food consumption based on the product available in the area analyzed. Indeed, the analysis has shown that food Data availability statement loss reduction could be mitigated by increasing vegetable intake in the population even during the most critical months and The datasets presented in this study can be found in provinces. However, these mitigation strategies are aimed at online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories redistributing surpluses or reducing industrial inefficiencies and and accession number(s) can be found in the are band-aid solutions that could potentially stimulate food loss article/Supplementary material. if not implemented occasionally (Booth and Whelan, 2014). For this reason, in addition to the short-term policy, long-term policy should be developed focusing on the systematic causes Author contributions supporting a transition that narrows the mismatch between All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, the demand and supply within an area (Altieri, 2015; Belletti and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it and Marescotti, 2020). The social indicators could identify loss for publication. thresholds regarding minimum or average food requirements at both global and local levels to set clear objectives in the national and international policy agendas. The economic indicator is Acknowledgments useful to quantify the economic impact on the sector and on the farmer’s income, giving a scale to quantify investments for The authors are grateful to Rotary International, Rotary the different typologies of the food value chain. Indeed, both Club Barcelona district 2022, Rotary Club Bologna district the increase in consumption and the increase in the availability 2072 for awarding a research scholarship to PT (Global of vegetables should be pursued together to generate a win–win Grant GG1984893). The research leading to these results has strategy for the farmer and consumer. For this reason, the use of received funding from the European Research Council under long- and short-term strategies is, therefore, crucial to ensure the the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation program benefit in the short term to the consumer and in the long term to under grant agreement No. 862663 (FoodE). Finally, we would the producer, breaking the dichotomy between these two actors like to thank Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del departament and paving the way for the elaboration of food loss reduction d’Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the strategies (Cattaneo et al., 2021). grant awarded under the n◦ AGAU 2020 PANDE 00021. The publication reflects the author’s views. The Research Executive Agency (REA) is not liable for any use that may be made of the 5. Conclusions information contained therein. The reduction of food loss in the horticultural sector is critical to simultaneously support the transition toward a diet Conflict of interest with higher consumption of vegetables and the achievement of policy goals aimed at halving the quantity of wastage by 2030 in The authors declare that the research was conducted in the the food system. Starting from crop selection, the present study absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could proposes an alternative method to identify the main vegetable be construed as a potential conflict of interest. based on retrospective analysis and the characteristics of the production system. Food loss in vegetables corresponded to 19– 35% of the agricultural production and 14% of the economic Publisher’s note value of horticultural production. The unharvested product was confirmed to be the highest contributor to the impact, followed All claims expressed in this article are solely those by quality sorting and technical inefficiencies. Based on the of the authors and do not necessarily represent those Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 08 frontiersin.org Tonini et al. 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1043591 of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, Supplementary material the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by The Supplementary Material for this article can be its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ publisher. fsufs.2022.1043591/full#supplementary-material References Acheson, J. (2016). Global Analysis Report Health and Wellness Series Pea Delgado, L., Schuster, M., and Torero, M. (2017). 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