Preventing Food Losses and Waste to Achieve Food Security and Sustainability

Around one third of all food production is lost or wasted. This book provides a comprehensive review of the causes and prevention of food losses and waste at key steps in the supply chain, for different commodities and across particular regions.

Professor Elhadi M. Yahia is Professor and Senior Research Scientist at the Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico. He is also a Courtesy Professor at the University of Florida, USA. Prof. Yahia has published 20 books in 3 languages and more than 300 book chapters and articles on post-harvest handling of fresh produce. He has worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) where he helped launch the Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction. He has served as a consultant to many organizations such as the FAO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), USAID, USDA and ICARDA. He is member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, The Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi) and The Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) of the World Food Logistics Organization.

Dr Silvia Gaiani holds 2 PhDs, one in International Cooperation and Policies for Sustainable Development and one In Food Policies and Economics from the University of Bologna, Italy. She is currently working as a food loss and waste specialist at FAO in Rome. She has previously been a research fellow at the University of Bologna and has worked as a consultant for WMO, the Italian Research Council, and a number of NGOs. She has conducted researches on the field in Japan, Canada, UK, Denmark and Finland and has authored scientific articles and a book entitled Transforming Food Waste into a Resource.

Dr. Dima Faour-Klingbeil is a research fellow at the University of Plymouth. Her research interests focus on farm-to-fork microbial food safety, food pathogen transmissions, the impact of food safety standards on food trade, and how climate change alters food and water safety, with a focus on the MENA region.

Dr. Dima is an expert in food safety and regulatory systems, a compliance auditor for food industries in the EU and the Middle East across different food categories, and the principal consultant and advisor at DFK for Safe Food Environment. She is a subject matter expert on the US Food Safety Modernization Act rules and a leading provider of advisory and training services in FSMA requirements for the food industry and trade associations in Germany and neighbouring countries.

She has over 20 years of experience in senior positions in the food and health industries and as a food safety and quality expert for local and international organizations. Dr. Dima developed an operational framework & a regional food assurance mechanism for setting up the Arab sustainable and Good Agriculture Practices certification scheme (ArabG.A.P) as the consultant for a regional United Nations organization (UN ESCWA). She is a member of the Joint FAO/WHO Experts Working Group on the Safety and Quality of Water Used in Food Production and Processing, an author of several scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals, and an invited speaker and advisor at various local, international and UN meetings (Lebanese Ministry of Economy, FAO, UN ESCWA, OIC, WHO, Chamber of commerce in Hanover, and others).

Reiner Jedermann finished his Diploma in Electrical Engineering in 1990 at the University of Bremen. After two employments on embedded processing of speech and audio signals, in 2004 he became a research associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Bremen. He finished his Ph.D. thesis on decision tools for freight supervision in late 2009. His current research focus is the analysis of spatial temperature profiles and the implementation of automated remote quality monitoring of fruits in containers and refrigerated warehouses.

Researcher and Associate Professor of the Agribusiness School from Tecnológico de Costa Rica, a public university focused on science and technology. She coordinates the Costa Rican Food Loss and Waste Network-SAVE FOOD COSTA RICA, together with colleagues from TEC, FAO Costa Rica and almost other 30 members from public institutions, private sector and citizen initiatives. She is also part of the Latin American and Caribbean Food Loss and Waste Network of Experts, and participates in boards, groups and scientific committees related to research, extension, and public policy for different agri-food chains in production, value-adding strategies and sustainable food systems, including the subcommittee working on the SDG 12.3.1 indicator for Costa Rica. She holds a degree in Agribusiness Engineering, as well as a Master's Degree in Environmental Management. She currently is PhD candidate in the Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science & Technology Programme of the University of Bologna, in the CV of International Cooperation and Sustainable Development, where she focuses in food loss assessment and valorization, and life cycle thinking applied to food supply chains.