ANALYSIS OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING FOOD WASTE

Abstract

The main objective of this research paper is to identify the most used mobile
applications that contribute to reducing food waste (FW) and to identify their role in this process. FW refers to food designated for human consumption that is wasted or lost. This includes not only unfinished meals at restaurants and leftovers discarded at home, but also raw materials and produce lost during farming, harvesting, transportation, and storage processes. FW constitutes to be one of the most major problems of our era because globally, over one-third of food produced for human consumption is wasted. The European Union estimates that 20% of its food production is lost or wasted, and concurrently, 43 million individuals in the European Union lack the financial resources to secure daily meals that provide adequate nutrition. Consequently, the volume of the food that is wasted globally is sufficient for feeding three billion individuals, whereas food waste in Europe could sustain 200 million, in Latin America 300 million, and in Africa 300 million people.