Food Wastage Management: The “Una Buona Occasione – A Good Opportunity” Contribution

Food waste is a global problem involving all supply chain stages. This phenomenon is on the increase and leads to negative economic, environmental and social issues. Numerous underlying factors may contribute to increasing the production of food waste. There are technical factors such as food perishability, food safety, storage and preservation; deterioration of the product or its packaging; spatial and temporal factors e.g. transport and transformation; consumers’ choice of flavours, preferences and food consumption habits. The economic factors include waste collecting and recycling costs. However, lost foodstuff and waste can be limited with the implementation of a correct management approach. In this context, the Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta Regions (North West Italy) have been involved in setting up the project “Una buona occasione” (“A good opportunity”). This initiative aims at promoting consumer awareness through a variety of tools i.e. a new design for rural economy to eliminate surplus production and, when necessary, the reuse of this surplus. Hopefully, all these activities will lead to a better management of the crucial relationship between production and distribution operators, which includes education on food consumption in order to reduce waste in food services.