Abstract
Food waste occurs at every stage of the food supply chain, spanning from agricultural production to household consumption. This pervasive issue exerts adverse effects on natural resources and the environment and poses a significant challenge to global food security objectives. Addressing and diminishing food waste not only mitigates environmental impacts but also contributes to minimizing the detrimental effects of agriculture on climate, biodiversity, soils, water bodies, and the atmosphere.
At corporate level, food waste is often driven by factors such as overproduction and excessive stockpiling, as it is more convenient for food producers to overproduce and for food retailers to oversupply than to risk losing profits by underproviding. To advance efforts in reducing food waste, it is necessary to address the issue at its root by comprehending the factors that contribute to its generation as well as those that could facilitate its reduction.
The objective of this article is to address the following research questions: What are the main drivers for food waste reduction at the corporate level? How are legal and policy drivers succeeding and failing in reducing food waste? To answer these research questions, the paper will focus on the case study of Norway and Spain, spotlighting the interaction between EU law and national law in driving food waste reduction as well as internal corporate factors.
To answer the questions, research of legal and policy sources was integrated by the development of a survey that was administered to companies involved in the production and distribution of food in Norway and Spain. The questions figure on a five-point Likert scale (not important to very important). They were complemented with open-ended questions to find out if there were any missing drivers perceived by the stakeholders.
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