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Sustainable Food Value Chains and Circular Economy

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Challenges and Opportunities of Circular Economy in Agri-Food Sector

Abstract

Food waste and loss are major threats to our food systems’ long-term sustainability. Researchers, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the agricultural industry are actively proposing, researching, and introducing creative and diverse strategies to solve the issue of food waste. In the conventional linear food supply chain model, billions of tons of food end up in landfills. Food waste is a global sustainability problem that plagues food systems and is an urgent concern from an economic, environmental, and social perspective. Integrating the circular economy principles into the food supply chain can make the food industry more sustainable. The circular economy in the food supply chain perspective involves an economic-industrial system that utilizes the six-R concepts, such as reducing, reusing, repurpose, repair, refurbishment, and recovery. Thus, it will open up various opportunities within the so-called food waste hierarchy. Different hierarchies follow different approaches to food waste management. While some focus on reducing waste generation early in the supply chain, others focus on later stages in the supply chain. This study focuses on the need for a sustainable food value chain to avoid loss during processing and its role in the circular economy and gain insights into how the implementation of circular economic models and tools can achieve sustainability in food loss and food waste in the food chain process.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Luang District, Thailand

    Simmi Ranjan Kumar

  2. College of Applied Food and Dairy Technology, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Saugat Prajapati

  3. Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, Bihta, Bihar, 801106, India

    Jose V. Parambil

Authors
  1. Simmi Ranjan Kumar
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  2. Saugat Prajapati
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  3. Jose V. Parambil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jose V. Parambil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Engineering, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Kundli, Sonepat, Haryana, India

    Rahul S Mor

  2. Department of Food Business Management and Entrepreneurship Development, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Kundli, Sonepat, Haryana, India

    Anupama Panghal

  3. Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Vikas Kumar

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Kumar, S.R., Prajapati, S., Parambil, J.V. (2021). Sustainable Food Value Chains and Circular Economy. In: Mor, R.S., Panghal, A., Kumar, V. (eds) Challenges and Opportunities of Circular Economy in Agri-Food Sector. Environmental Footprints and Eco-design of Products and Processes. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3791-9_5

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