Food losses and wastes in Brazil: a systematic review

Globally, it is estimated that approximately a third of the food produced is lost or wasted. Reducing half of these losses would make it possible to increase the availability of food for another 1 billion people. Specifically, in Brazil, the amount of lost and wasted food, if used, would be enough to achieve food security, considering as a restriction for this security, the availability of food for purchase. In this context, the objective is to identify methodologies that measure losses and food waste in Brazil. For this, a systematic review of the subject was made. It can be observed that there are a few studies that quantify food losses and wastage in the country. The largest concentration of these studies is in the distribution and consumption stages of the food supply chain. Information is available from food lost and waste, mainly in the consumption and distribution phases. Otherwise, in the other phases of the supply chain, food loss and waste values in Brazil are still incipient or non-existent. Studies that identify these values can contribute to the generation of more accurate information on the subject, being able to raise the values referring to food loss and waste of the country.


INTRODUCTION
The quest for ensuring food and nutrition security is related to the challenge of having a world free of hunger and malnutrition through a food production that attends the needs of the world's population. This product requires an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable system to prevent the creation of problems related to food production, such as the depletion of natural resources (FAO, 2017a). Although over the years there has been a progressive reduction of hunger, it still affects around 800 million people worldwide (FAO et al., 2015). Also, the global population increase is a trend. It is estimated that by the middle of this century it excesses 9 billion people, surpassing 11 billion by the end of the period. This projection, combined with excessive consumption, population aging, climate change, accelerated urbanization, natural disasters, and economic and financial crises, results in a panorama of uncertainties about food availability that serves the entire population. (FAO, 2009(FAO, , 2017a. It is observed that the increase in food consumption is not only connected to the increase in production, other factors, such as the reduction of losses and wastes, can be considered alternatives to the solution of the problem. Approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted annually on our planet (FAO, 2013). The area used to produce what is being wasted amounts to the territories of Canada and India, this waste transforms the labor and natural resources used in this production into wastes that do not serve the productive purpose, feed and nourish people (FAO, 2013). Thinking about ensuring future food safety, reducing losses and waste is considered one of the most promising measures (Foley et al., 2011;Gustavsson et al., 2011;Mechanical Engineers, 2013;Parfitt et al., 2010). Among the aim of Agenda 2030, Goal 12, mark 3, considers reducing half of the world's food waste in consumption, retail sales and reducing losses in the production chain, to achieve sustainable development (ONU, 2015).
In this meaning, the reduction of losses and waste can contribute incisively on the amount of food offered (Priefer et al., 2016). However, along the supply chain, the causes for the occurrence of losses and waste vary according to the specific conditions and the local situation in each country (Gustavsson et al., 2011). In developing countries, losses are mainly associated with inefficient harvesting and poor processing quality. Moreover, in the case of developed countries more often occurs the waste, substantial of food wastage or are simply discarded (Gustavsson et al., 2011;Krishna Bahadur et al., 2016). Generally, both facts represent an important aspect of the inefficiency of food systems (Kummu et al., 2012). There _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Revista Desenvolvimento Socioeconômico em debate v.6 n.1 (2020) 80 is a necessity to evaluate the effects that reducing food losses and waste can cause financially, socially and environmentally, so it demonstrates values to society so that this characteristic can be reversed (Williams et al., 2015). In this way, the objective is to identify methodologies that measure food losses and waste in Brazil, considering that the country stands out globally for its agricultural production. For this, a systematic review was carried out on the subject.

FOOD LOSSES AND WASTE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Food Loss and Waste (FLW) refers to the edible parts of plants and animals harvested or produced but which are not even consumed. The loss of food is related to an agricultural process or technical limitation in storage, infrastructure, packaging, which food is lost before reaching the consumer. The waste results from the negligence or conscious decision to discard the food before or after spoiling (Lipinski et al., 2013).
There are several aspects to be considered concerning food losses and wastage. There are studies that consider the loss in the production process due to the action of pests or natural phenomena (example: hail, drought, excessive rainfall), but most works define and/or account for losses starting from the harvest (Gustavsson et al., 2014;Parfitt et al., 2010). It also occurs that consumer behavior, losses, and inefficiencies in agricultural production, play a substantial role in the amount of food waste generated (Alexander et al., 2017). The definitions of losses/wastage starting from harvesting can be seen in Table 1. Regarding the worldwide distribution of losses and waste (residue), developing and developed countries generate most of their waste at different stages. The underdeveloped countries generate the largest amount of unused food with the losses, which are mainly associated with inefficient harvesting, inadequate storage facilities, and poor processing quality. Already developed countries, the most frequently generated losses are concentrated on waste, given the low cost of food and large amounts of food that spoil without being consumed or are just rejected, even though they may be fit for consumption (Krishna Bahadur et al., 2016).
Concerning to Latin America, the fight against FLW is carried out in different ways, according to the country (Figure 1), from its committees and working groups. It is noted that they are in distinct stages about their constitution, being classified (i) information and (ii) established. However, it is observed that many countries in Latin America have no committees.
This feature is worrying if it is considered that hunger is a global problem that needs to be tackled and that government actions are essential to this issue. Latin America causes about 6% of the total wasted and lost food in the world, only with the reversion of FLWs, in this region, it would be possible to feed 300 million people (FAO, 2011). Considering only direct sales to consumers, it would be possible to supply the caloric Cuba -National Committee for the Reduction of Food Losses and Waste from Cuba.

Dominican Republic -National
Committee for the Reduction of FLW.

Brazil
-FLW Technical Committee of the International Commission on Food and Nutrition Security..

Uruguay -Baseline on domestic waste FAO / Ricaldoni Foundation.
Argentina -National Reduction Network of FLW.

Chile
-National Committee for the Prevention and Reduction of FLW.

Mexico
- Colombia -National Line on FLW.. includes an articulated regional alliance from national committees (FAO, 2016). There is also the initiative to insert the gender issue into the context, so public actions value women's work to reduce hunger and there is equal access between men and women to land (FAO, 2017b).

Ecuador
In the specific case of Brazil, there is a need to overcome the dilemma of being one of the richest countries in natural resources and having part of its population with problems of food restriction due to lack of access, productive availability, among others. It should be noted that over the last few decades the country has been struggling to reduce this problem through governmental action that has made hunger no longer a structural problem . Also, the country has gained prominence about the agricultural volumes produced, which has been contributing to the reduction of hunger in the world. To make new progress in the country, it is believed that investments in sustainable production programs, technical assistance and knowledge creation that generate good rural management practices will assist the country in its progress against hunger (FAO, 2017c). To consolidate the country's food system, seeking the food security of the population (FAO, 2016).

METHODS
The organization of this review follows the guidelines made by Fink (2010)  Several methods can be used to measure the FLW, which are available in Annex 1. (FAO and USDA). In this case, these sources consider the region of location and the similarity between countries to estimate the value of the quantities of FLW. It happens also that when observed the number of published works, it can be mentioned the necessity to expand academic research on the subject, given the global importance of this theme. Most of the studies that quantify losses and wastes in Brazil are case studies and were generally carried out at the consumption and distribution stages (Table 3).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It is believed this feature should be related mainly to the ease of data collection, where the weighting methodology can be easily employed.
The FLW values are variable in the different phases of the supply chain because they are influenced by the specificities of each product. As an example, the consumption and distribution phase varies between 10% and 30% of the total of meals produced and not consumed, and are similar to each other (Leinig et al., 2017, Gonzáles et al., 2017, Galian et al., 2016, Pistorello et al., 2015, Parisoto et al., 2013, Pikelaizen e Spinelli, 2013, Fugii et al., 2010, Ricarte et al., 2008. In the post-harvest, processing, and transportation phases, the products still differ according to their food group, chain size, type of processing and logistics (Rocha et al., 2017, Ribeiro et al., 2014, Foscaches et al., 2012, Costa et al., 2011, Costa e Caixeta Filho, 1996 Another point to be observed is that losses in production were not evaluated, probably because of the difficulty in determining it, because it is an expensive process that requires time and labor for its execution. The most commonly found in the literature are those referring to using new technologies, mainly in pest control. Concerning the Brazilian studies that quantify the FLW, even if these are reduced, there is low international visibility by the fact that the majority is published in the Portuguese language. Studies at global levels did not use data obtained in Portuguese to estimate food losses and waste, as it can be observed in the FAO study (2011).

CONCLUSIONS
Brazil does not have many studies to determine food losses and wastes. Still, being aware that the quantity of FLW is high, and thinking about food security and nutrition and a resilient food production system, the search for the reduction of this is essential. Especially if considered that the country has high-income inequality and this feature can compromise people's access to nutritious food. The reduction of FLW can assist in cheapening the cost of food in the country, increasing food supply in the domestic market to facilitate access to food of the population with the lowest income in the country.
Information is available from FLW, mainly in the consumption and distribution phases. They may include older data than the scope of temporary inventory coming from a different geographical area, or that are drawn from another sector than the defined one Less expensive than methods that measure or estimate the amount of food wasted Less precise, due to the application of suppositions