Monitoring der Lebensmittelverluste im Lebensmittelhandel

Food waste (if it were considered as a country) is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the USA. In total, about one third of all food produced for human consump-tion is wasted (FAO, 2015). In Germany, 11.9 million tons of food was wasted in 2015 (Schmidt et al., 2019). In 2015 the United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tar-get 12.3 states that food waste should be reduced by 2030 (VN, 2015). For the consumer and retail sectors, the target has been quantified as a 50 percent reduction. In order to quantify the success of the reduction of food waste in Germany, a differentiated monitoring concept is required. The Baseline 2015 (Schmidt et al., 2019) provides initial figures as a basis for trend analysis in order to evaluate certain areas of the food supply chain and thus to determine efficient reduction strate-gies; this requires direct measurements of food waste. This working paper highlights monitoring methods in food retail. The monitoring methods for food waste are individual in the different sectors as each represent different challenges. The methods presented focus on previous literature and expert assessments and are compared in terms of their significance and effort with the aim of finding a suitable method for the German food retail. The following core statements could be detected from the comparison of methods: • Cooperation: Cooperation with the companies that can provide the primary data is the key to success. • Definition: All unsold food (food waste, animal feed, food donations) should be included in the analyses. • Market structure: An overview of the structure of the food retail on a national level is essential. • Methods: Transcriptions of economic losses have proven to be a particularly suitable method, as they are weighing up significance and effort involved. • Additional parameters: Additional surveys are necessary to also record the recovery of the disposed food.