Waste Not, Want Not: Understanding the impact of food characteristics on Circular Economy practices in the Italian Retail sector

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that each year, along the whole food supply chain, one-third of global food production is wasted and is consequently responsible for negative environmental, social, and economic impacts. Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers have identified circular economy as an effective approach to addressing food waste and its detrimental consequences. The application of circular economy principles to reduce and recover food waste has been broadly investigated in the scientific literature; however, studies have so far neglected the role of the characteristics of different products in food waste generation and management. Starting from a novel classification of food products in light of circular economy, this work aims to fill this gap by exploring how the food characteristics that most influence food waste along food supply chains affect the adoption of circular economy practices. First, the literature on circular economy and food waste is reviewed to define categories of food products. This initial inductive analysis reveals how the relevance of a characteristic varies along the supply chain, leading to the identification of different characteristics for each supply chain stage. To understand how these characteristics influence the implementation of circular economy, empirical data are collected using a case study methodology involving food retailers operating in the Italian territory. Retailers are at the last stage of the supply chain: beyond the validation of the developed classification, their perspective highlights how the identified characteristics intertwine going downstream the chain, creating peculiar conditions for food waste generation and management. The main contribution of this work is represented by the proposal of a novel perspective on circular economy for food waste prevention and management. This conceptualization, which poses food products at the core of the analysis and exposes their specificities, can ease the reduction and recovery of food waste along the supply chain.