Social life cycle assessment of food loss and waste: social impact considerations

Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is key to increasing the sustainability of food systems worldwide. The causes of FLW vary from on farm losses to distribution and consumption related waste. This wide range of causes suggests that technical/environmental, and behavioral/social considerations are relevant to an effective assessment of leverage points to reduce FLW. Yet social considerations have received only limited attention in FLW research. An assessment tool that seeks to improve the evaluation of social considerations is Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). This tool aims to comprehensively assess the impact of products over their entire life cycle. We conduct a systematic review of S-LCA applications to FLW to analyze the prevalence of social considerations in the study of FLW during the past 20 years. Synthesized from the broader literature on FLW, this study identifies three relevant social dimensions, namely working conditions, community considerations, and food security factors; and applies these dimensions to the selected S-LCA studies for our analysis of social impact considerations. Our findings suggest that most FLW studies which applied S-LCA as part of larger Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments also examined the environmental and economic impacts of FLW in addition to the social ones. Social impacts that were most frequently mentioned are worker-related issues such as fair wages, working hours, and occupational health and safety. These are followed by local community aspects such as local employment, commitments to sustainability, and economic development. Overall, our findings suggest future opportunities to analyze FLW through the lens of S-LCA. Additionally, the social implications of improved education and youth engagement in the FLW space and the integration of S-LCA with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goals 4 and 17, are underexplored and offer opportunities for further research.