Strategic Framework and Business Tools for Reducing Pre-Retail Food Waste – A practical application for food SMEs

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) represent approximately 99% of all food businesses at the upstream (‘pre-retail’) end of Australia’s food supply chain. Common pre-retail food waste reduction strategies attempted by agrifood SMEs such as upcycling food waste, optimising processes, and shelf-life extension can be risky and/or resource-intensive and are barriers to SMEs reducing food waste. Currently there are limited evidence-based business tools that pre-retail SMEs can access to mitigate financial risks and overcome the aversion to trialling and implementing food waste reduction activities. To develop and apply a framework and aligned business tools that assist SMEs in identifying opportunities to reduce food waste and assess their commercial viability. The framework developed and applied in this research is a comprehensive and practical approach to identifying and assessing food waste management solutions. The framework focuses on key commercial, technical, regulatory, and operational factors that SMEs should consider when assessing the potential viability of solutions or opportunities. The strategic framework is translated into a set of aligned business tools. Both framework and tools were applied using a real-world case study from the Western Australian (WA) banana industry to facilitate multi-criteria decision making. Food waste management solutions with commercial potential were clearly identified, but food waste reduction was not achieved owing to barriers outside of the case study’s control. The proposed framework and business tools could be used by other SMEs outside the WA context to identify commercially feasible food waste reduction solutions. • A new evidence-based framework for reducing pre-retail food waste was developed. • The framework was translated into a set of practical, ready-for-use business tools. • The framework and tools were applied to a real-world agrifood SME case study. • Supply chain mapping and multi-criteria decision making helped identify solutions. • Economic feasibility was determined with the help of cost benefit analysis.