Tackling food waste and loss through digitalization in the food supply chain: A systematic review and framework development

With growing concern about food security in recent years, the use of digitalization to address food waste and loss (FWL) events has become an increasing focus of academic research. Most current FWL studies however are fragmented and dispersed, focusing only on specific digital technologies applied to the food supply chain (FSC). This study utilizes a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to analyze 4277 abstracts and titles, along with 129 full-text papers on the topic (111 papers finally included) from 2014 to 2024. It provides a unified and comprehensive overview of how state-of-the-art digital technologies are being used to tackle complex FWL events within the FSC. This review identifies and integrates the potential of 16 digital technologies, examining their application methods, the corresponding FWL events and deployment phases within the FSC (i.e. Production, Handling & Storage, Processing & Packaging, Distribution & Retail, and Consumption). Based on the findings of this review, a digital FWL network management framework is developed. This framework describes the relationships among drivers, actors, causes, actions, time, and places involved in addressing FWL, aiming to simulate the real-world process of how digitalization can tackle complex FWL events. Furthermore, this review investigates the research trend, sustainable impact, potential drawbacks, and deployment obstacles of digital technologies in reducing FWL, and subsequently identifies future research directions. Overall, this study adopts a promising multiple-technology perspective to systematically illustrate how different digital technologies can address FWL events at various phases of the FSC.