ANALYSIS AND MODELS FOR THE REDUCTION OF FOOD WASTE IN ORGANIZED LARGE-SCALE RETAIL DISTRIBUTION IN EASTERN SICILY

Nowadays, food waste is one of the main global paradoxes and raises profound questions from the social point of view. The causes of food losses and food waste are varied and differ according to the various stages of the food chain. The problem of food waste prompted the European Parliament to proclaim 2014 the "European year against food waste" and to adopt a resolution which should lead to a reduction of 50% of waste by the year 2025. This study proposes the possible corrective actions, to be taken at the level of retail distribution and facing the end customer, to achieve the goal reducing of food waste (Fiore et al., 2008). The research was conducted by a group of scholars of the Department of Economics, Business, Environmental and Quantitative Methods, at the University of Messina, on a sample area of eastern Sicily. In particular thirteen retail outlets were analyzed by collecting and processing data on sales, broken down by sector, for the period 2009 to 2013. The research conducted has shown that the food sector that contributes most to food waste, in the area investigated, is that of fruit and vegetables, the study has provided a detailed analysis of the ten most wasted foods. The work finally comes to processes that involve many different scenarios for reducing waste, encouraging a comparison, of the products most wasted, by providing potential solutions or corrective actions aimed at reducing the phenomenon analyzed.