Data and the Development of Practical Postharvest Technology for Food Loss Reduction
I published a note from Dr. Lisa Kitinoja, The Postharvest Education Foundation
Data and the Development of Practical Postharvest Technology for Food Loss Reduction
In the field of postharvest technology and food loss reduction, which has been garnering global attention in recent years, we still have very little data available to share. Although the SAVE FOOD Initiative of the UN FAO, IMechE, WRAP, ADMI, Feed the Future, the Rockefeller Foundation, World Resources Institute and many other global donor organizations are aware of the problems resulting from high food losses (with measurements ranging from 20 to 80% being reported by researchers affiliated with WFLO, PEF, BMGF, APHLIS and others, depending on the type of food crop and country)
To date there has been no systematic data collection.A wide variety of measurement approaches and methodologies in use has provided us with a scattered array of information with many missing elements. For most foods and for most countries we know very little about the current levels of food losses, where losses are occurring in the postharvest handling chain, who is responsible and what the many potential “solutions” would cost in different settings.