Economia circular

: reaproveitamento de frutos e hortícolas através do processo de desidratação numa cadeia de retalho alimentar

Abstract

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicts that about 1.3 billion tons of food are globally wasted per year. Food waste is an unsustainable worldwide problem with environmental, economic and social consequences such as food insecurity.In food retail, waste is inevitable and happens mostly in perishables foods, being fruits and vegetables the most susceptible. The main drivers of this food waste include ineffective cold storage, exceeding of expiration dates (short shelf life) and product damage due to poor handling by retailers or consumers. To the moment, many initiatives have been implemented by retailers to reduce food waste such as donations to institutions, price reduction at end-of-life products and food recovery such as the transformation of poor quality fruit into fruit salads or jam.Recovering poor quality fruits and vegetables into dried snacks could be a new opportunity to retail, using dehydration process as a food preservation method and having in mind the healthy food consumption current trend.The aim of this work is to study the business case potential and the recovery of 30% of fruit and vegetables using the dehydration process.A detailed study of market trends, the dehydration process and product characterization as well as fruit and vegetables waste analysis was performed to carry out the business case.The business model included a production unit, strategic centralized at the Sonae MC warehouse, supplied by fruit and vegetable products from six stores with major product volume.Poor quality fruit and vegetables recovery using dehydration had not been previously studied by food retailers but could represent a new direction in food waste reduction.

Date of Award	30 Jan 2018
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Pedro de Sá Lago (Supervisor) & Ana Maria Gomes (Co-Supervisor)