Characteristics And Reduction Potentials Of Losses And Waste Of Major Grains Of The Food Supply Chain In China

We developed a method to quantify crop postharvest losses.With the method,we analyzed postharvest losses of the major crops(paddy,wheat and maize)of China and evaluated its potential of losses reduction.The results showed that there was a higher crop postharvest loss(CPHL)ratio of China compared with the developed countries,and the major CPHL ratio were 6.9%,7.8%and 9.0%,respectively,and the total average value was 7.9%.In the CPHL ratio,the crop storage accounted for the largest proportion,reaching 40.3%,and the second was the crop harvest,with the proportion of 31.4%.We found that the key losses reduction segments were from household storage and harvest.The scenarios analysis indicated that the optimal scenario can cut down CPHL ratio to less than 4%.Therfore,there is a large CPHL reducing potential existing in Chinese crop postharvest sectionThe amounts of food waste per capital were analyzed in catering.The results showed that the reduction policy had significantly intervening effect.Compared with the policy approved before(the year of 2011),except eggs,the total amount of food waste,animal food waste and plant food waste all had significantly decreased in the year of 2013 and 2015(P<0.05).Moreover,compared with the year of 2013,the total amount of food waste and plant food waste had significantly decreased,and animal food waste had not significantly decreased,but still gave a downward trend in quantity.And food waste from different scales of restaurants were also analyzed,and the results indicated that the significantly intervening effect of policy on food waste mainly concentrated in large and medium-sized restaurants,especially in large restaurant,the total amount of food waste,animal food waste and plant food waste volumes had significantly declined,but small restaurant had not significantly declined even increased than that of 2011,which can be affected by other factors other than policy.Therefore,food waste from large and medium-sized restaurants has the potential to be cut down,and the researches should be strengthened to focus on large and medium-sized restaurants in the future,explore the influence factors,and induct the sustainable development of catering industry of urban China.Food footprint model in the whole grain supply chain were also built.The results showed that:food footprint and feed footprint accounted for a high proportion,and their combined footprint accounted for 77.6%to 80.3%of the total footprint(the average of three grains).The second was the total loss footprint,with the average loss footprint of the three grains being 15.3%.The food loss footprint was mainly distributed in the postharvest section and food chain section.The postharvest loss rate of the three crops were 6.8%,8.9%and 10.2%,respectively,accounting for 56.1%,50.8%and 68.6%of the total loss in the whole food supply chain.In 2010,the total loss amount of the three crops reached 43.2 million tons,accounting for 58.1%of the total loss amount.In 2010,the total loss amount of the three crops reached 21.2 million tons,accounting for 28.5%of the total loss amount.The reduction potentials of the three crops losses vary greatly among different sections in the whole supply chain.Among them,the greatest reduction potential was from postharvest section,followed by the food chain.Under the optimal scenario,the total loss footprint of the three crops was reduced by 38.1%compared with the base year 2010.In the comprehensive postharvest scenario,the postharvest loss footprint of the three crops decreased by 37.6%.In the comprehensive food chain scenario,the food chain loss footprint of three crops decreased by 35.9%It could be seen that the postharvest section and food chain section are the keys to carry out crop loss reduction in the whole supply chain in China.