Today's wastage is tomorrow's shortage: a systematic literature review on food waste from social responsibility perspective

Abstract

Purpose

Recognizing food waste as a global issue, it has attracted scholars to conduct numerous relevant studies in the area. Growing concerns about the social and environmental impacts have intensified food waste attention to the practice of socially responsible consumption. The purpose of this study is to undertake a review of existing knowledge to edify and provide a platform for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study retrieved and reviewed a total of 76 articles from Web of Science (WoS) database, which were published from 2011 to 2020 in food and nutrition related journals from social responsibility perspective.

Findings

In accordance with the proposed research questions, the findings demonstrate the publication trend, distribution of article sources, research regions, thematic classification, theoretical and methodology framework. The findings also reveal research gaps in the literature and facilitate scholars with extensive gap-specific research directions to explore.

Research limitations/implications

This review is limited in its consideration of articles from the (WoS) database and focused in food or nutrition related journals.

Originality/value

By mapping what is known in the current state of food waste research, this study identifies existing gaps and opportunities for future research in this area.

Citation

Chang, Y.-S., Lim, X.-J. and Cheah, J.-H. (2021), "Today's wastage is tomorrow's shortage: a systematic literature review on food waste from social responsibility perspective", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 9, pp. 3172-3191. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2021-0315