Scoping Review of Pre-Consumption Food Loss in the US Supply Chain: Factors, Impacts, and Solutions

Food waste is a major global problem that worsens food insecurity and contributes to environmental challenges and resource depletion. Reducing food waste, especially before it reaches consumers, is a crucial strategy for combating food insecurity and advancing environmental sustainability. This scoping review examines the factors, impacts, and practices related to food loss and waste (FLW) in the pre-consumption stage of the U.S. supply chain using a predefined coding scheme. A machine learning technique (i.e., topic modeling) was used to supplement the manual coding to identify themes. Findings from 104 articles from 2015 to 2024 revealed that (a) macro and micro-level factors were understudied; (b) impacts of FLW were predominantly assessed in terms of environmental consequences, with less attention given to economic, social, cultural, and political impacts; (c) despite the high concentration on donation, prevention, recovery, and recycling as solutions, there were critical gaps in the exploration of policy and regulatory strategies, as well as education and awareness; and (d) minimization is the most dominant approach compared to prevention. We recommend that more research focus on causes of food loss, economic, social, cultural, and political impacts, policy and regulatory strategies, as well as education and awareness. We also recommend shifting from weak minimization efforts to strong prevention practices, emphasizing cooperation among all participants in the supply chain.