Bartek, Louise
- Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Modern food systems face mounting pressure to reduce waste, enhance resource efficiency, and operate within planetary boundaries. Despite substantial efforts to curb losses and wastage of edible food resources, large volumes of underutilized surplus food and by-products are still generated throughout the food value chain, representing a vast untapped resource reservoir. This thesis explores the environmental implications of recovering these food resources and circulating them back into the food supply chain to support more sustainable, resilient, and circular food production.
Using a system-level life cycle assessment (LCA) framework, the research examines the potential environmental benefits and trade-offs of food resource recovery across different pathways and scales, focusing primarily on the Swedish and European contexts. The four studies cover strategies ranging from prevention and direct reuse to bioconversion, genetic engineering, and technological interventions, each representing distinct recovery pathways for recovering fat, protein, and carbohydrates for reuse in food or feed applications. The results demonstrate that when recovered resources replace conventional food and feed ingredients, considerable reductions in environmental impacts can be achieved, including reduced climate impact, lower nutrient pollution, less land use, and mitigated damage to ecosystems and biodiversity loss.
Collectively, the findings demonstrate that the environmental benefits of food resource recovery depend not only on the recovery process itself, but on how effectively surplus food and by-products can be reintegrated into the food system and thereby substitute food or feed resources. By linking environmental performance with technological readiness and system-level applicability, the thesis evaluates conditions under which recovery can most effectively advance resource efficiency. These insights provide a scientific foundation for navigating future development toward reconceptualizing otherwise wasted food into valuable resources for sustainable food systems.
Keywords
Recovery pathways; Life cycle assessment; Sustainable food systems; Resource efficiency; Food loss and waste prevention
Published in
Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2025, number: 2025:89
Publisher: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Management
Environmental Sciences
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.54612/a.89fkd3er15
- ISBN: 978-91-8124-073-3
- eISBN: 978-91-8124-119-8
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/142490