Más Alimentos, Menos Desperdicio: Reducción de la pérdida y el desperdicio de Alimentos

The United Nations estimates that 14% of agri-food products are lost within harvest, postharvest,
transformation and wholesale markets, while 12% of food is lost among the steps of retail, food
service and consumption; therefore, this problem is addressed in target 12.3 of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). Food losses and waste (FLW) are responsible for severe
environmental, social and economic effects, and the Agribusiness School from TEC has been
involved in order to fight these situations since 2013, leading a national initiative that allows the
comprehension of this phenomenon as well as the limitations that prevents further advancements.
As global efforts move towards the implementation of the International FLW Code of Conduct
(promoted by Costa Rica) and the metrics to monitor target 12.3 begin to appear, Costa Rica lacks
a baseline that would allow the effective solutions against FLW, in spite of the interest of many
actors of the national food system. In consequence, this proposal aims at “developing actions
against FLW through pilot cases in Costa Rica”. The project’s activities foresee the execution of
diagnoses of FLW as well as of the capacities of identified actors, in order to aid in the creation of
national baselines as well as to generate awareness, build capacities and document effective FLW
cases. The baseline would be obtained through the application of methodologies proposed by the
SDG 12.3 target custodian agencies of the United Nations, used to report the Food Loss Index and
the Food Waste Index. These methodologies include the use of surveys, mass balance and
quantifications suggested by the World Resources Institute, techniques to determine FLW critical
points, waste composition and generation methods as the ones already used by Municipalities, and
self-reporting techniques such as diaries, among others. Moreover, in the case of FLW reduction
alternatives, applicable methods and techniques include postharvest management practices, food
conservation technologies, surveys, interviews and observation. Due to the experience of the
researchers and their link to the Costa Rican FLW Reduction Network, specific cases of interest are
already identified, such as potato farmers from Cartago and Alajuela, concessionaries and
beneficiaries from the wholesale market of CENADA, and household actors linked to the
Municipalities of Cartago, Santa Ana and La Unión. As main results, the project expects to generate
a methodological proposal to obtain FLW baselines as well as to document FLW reduction
alternatives.

“Desarrollar Acciones para la Reducción de la pérdida y el desperdicio de Alimentos a partir de
casos piloto en Costa Rica”.

Gestión Ambiental en los Agronegocios, Producción Agropecuaria y Producción
Agroindustrial, Gestión Agroempresarial.