Strategies of leftover food treatment process in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Pao-Lin Chen, 陳寶玲
• Other Authors: Hwong-Wen Ma
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/wcmd97

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 環境工程學研究所 === 105 === The total amount of agricultural production has been challenged and affected its role as food in supply chain due to climate change, the improper use of soil, frequent natural disasters and human-made pollution. The large population, which was estimated to exceed 9 billion in 2050 by The United Nations Population Fund, will increase the burden of agricultural production and exacerbate the number of hungry population and the crisis of uneven food distribution. Furthermore, the food wasted before serving on the table is more than one-third in the whole world which causes the economic losses and large amount of greenhouse gas emissions every year. All these situations mentioned above will cause the problem of national food security especially the “Food Waste” which has been highlighted to be solved all over the world and has been considered as the main threat of food security by United Nations. The problems of food waste happen everywhere with different degrees and factors while in different regions. In low-income countries, the problem of food waste comes from the limitation of technology and transportation. But in high-income and middle-income countries, the problem of food waste often comes from the consumption habits and throwing-away by retailers due to appearance factors. In addition, the amount of food waste and the contribution of the carbon footprint are the highest in “distribution stage” and “consumption stage” of the whole food supply chain including production, storage, packaging, transportation, market distribution and consumption stages according to studies. However, the two stages also include all the marketing systems, which includes restaurants, supermarkets, stores and hypermarkets, and household consumption which includes household and individual consumption. According to studies, vegetables, fruits and meat stand largest proportion in leftover food in Taiwan and the methods to process leftover food are not multiple as the rate shows up to 70 % that Taiwan hypermarkets and stores process leftover food through incineration with other garbage or feeding animals. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to estimate the wasted amount of vegetables, fruits and meat form the “distribution” and “consumption” stages in Taiwan and to propose the indicators and strategy for the methods of processing leftover food. This study is focused on 3 points: firstly, to estimate well the amount of leftover food of vegetables, fruits and meat form the “distribution” and “consumption” stages in food supply chain. Secondly, to develop “Economic Benefits”, “Carbon Footprint” and “Water Footprint” indicators in the approaches with leftover food: “Incineration”, “Leftover Food Restaurant”, “Food Banking”, “Composting” and “Power Generation by Food Waste”. Thirdly, to analyze the results of these 5 treatment methods processing leftover food of vegetables, fruits and meat and figure out the suitable methods through context setting. As a result of the establishment of indicators, “Leftover Food Restaurant” is received the highest value in “Economic Benefits” indicator with NTD 218,221/ton while “Incineration” is received the lowest one with NTD -1,584/ton. For “Carbon Footprint” indicator, “Incineration” contributes the most with 2.21 TGHGs/ton while “Food Banking” contributes the less with 0.126 TGHGs/ton. As to “Water Footprint” indicator, “Incineration”, “Composting” and “Power Generation by Food Waste” contribute the most with 2,355 m3 /ton while “Food Banking” contributes the less with 6 m3 /ton. In conclusion of scenario analysis, the most suitable leftover food treatment approach is “Leftover Food Restaurant” with high economic benefits and efficiency. The second suggested approach is “Food Banking” and the last one is “Power Generation by Food Waste”. All these study results are proposed to be the references of leftover food treatment solution for corporates, governments and research organizations.