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1 Introduction
Sustainability concerns are becoming an essential part of perishable food supply chain management. The average loss of food products over the whole chain from production to the retail shelf and the consumer's fridge is estimated to be 35 per cent ([23] Parfitt et al. , 2010); in other words, one-third of the food produced for humans is wasted ([12] Gustavsson et al. , 2011). The food waste in different supply chain phases has been estimated in many studies, providing somewhat different results, depending on the measures and methods used, but the studies seem to agree that product groups such as fresh bakery products and fresh fruits and vegetables contribute most to the avoidable food waste, and are most significant in affecting the total turnover in all parts of the distribution chain ([13] Hanssen and Schakenda, 2011; [15] Kantor et al. , 2007; [11] Griffin et al. , 2008; [21] Mena et al. , 2011). The most common reason for waste at the retail store is that products' expiry dates have passed ([13] Hanssen and Schakenda, 2011). The causes for this include ordering more than real demand or products reaching the store shelf too late and with a short remaining shelf life ([21] Mena et al. , 2011). The origins of these effects have been identified as a lack of information sharing, forecasting difficulties and poor ordering, the performance measurement focus on cost, efficiency and availability, and problems in promotions management ([24] Taylor and Fearne, 2009; [30], [29] WRAP, 2011b, c). Therefore, it becomes evident that ensuring that the product reaches the end consumer in full quantity and in perfect condition is of crucial importance for increasing sustainability ([22] Nereng et al. , 2009).
This paper takes a supply chain view in order to study the wasting of fresh food. The main environmental effect is not caused solely in the phase where the product is wasted; food products that end up not being consumed have an environmental impact without adding value. A further rationale is that poor planning practices and delays in previous supply chain phases can harm the operations in later phases ([23] Parfitt et al. , 2010). Thus, producing volumes according to real demand and improving the efficiency and performance of...