Food losses and waste in the poultry production chain: from farm to retail

In the context of “2014 - European Year against Food Waste” and the EU project FUSIONS, a study has been conducted in a first attempt to define, describe and quantify food losses and waste from harvest to retail in various food supply chains in France. The present communication focuses on meat of Gallus species, i.e. meat of chicken and culled laying hens. In the present study, food losses were defined as product discard from human consumption due to sanitary reasons: mortality between harvesting and stunning and condemnation at slaughter house. Food waste was defined as any part of the animal which is edible or could, after processing, be eaten by humans yet which is used for other purposes, such as for pet food. The study drew in diagrams the different technical tracks from the live animal to the end product, with the various associated by-products coming out along the slaughter and processing lines, and their valorisation. Determinants for food losses and waste were found to be either technical, such as technical characteristics of processing tools, economical, such as the market demand side, regulatory or organizational, such as shelf management at retail with respect to products’ expiry dates. Quantification of food losses and waste is difficult to perform due to the confidential character of business data. Issuing from the representation of the different slaughter and process steps, a calculation sheet has been implemented in order to estimate the share of food losses and waste according to various hypotheses, such as, e.g. percentage of carcasses devoted to cutting, or percentage of giblets valued for human consumption. The stages of marketing and retailing remained however poorly documented. This preliminary study needs to be discussed with a larger professional audience and challenged by further research on this topic of increasing public attention.