Agri-food loss and waste management: Win-win strategies for edible discarded fruits and vegetables sustainable reuse

In the world, a large amount of food is lost or becomes waste along the agri-food supply chain. Circular Economy models in the agri-food systems can reduce the amount of food loss and waste generated in the agri-food supply chain by using them as a new resource. In the case of fruits and vegetables, loss and waste account for 45% in the whole supply chain, being processing stage responsible of up to 18% of losses. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) has been carried out to investigate the most effective sustainable strategies aiming to reuse the food losses in the fruits and vegetables industry. Four main research areas emerged from the SLR: reuse for human consumption, animal feeding, recovery for matter-energy use, and integration into new business models. A sustainable assessment framework is proposed to compare the different strategies. Among these, the human consumption area includes more sustainable strategies, classified according to four classes (i.e., environment, business, ICT, and consumer behavior). They have been analysed to identify the existing knowledge gaps and open issues. The results show new scientific perspectives and open research opportunities.