Alternatives to the traditional waste management: Food recovery for human non-profit organizations

Abstract

Food supply chains are affected by losses of products which become poorly attractive for the consumers as they get close to their expiration date, therefore remaining unsold on the shelves. Such situation is ethically depreciable considering that many undernourished people rely on non-profit organizations for their survival. Despite of this situation, food recovery through the supply chain is still scarcely practiced, and the potential benefits achievable are frequently ignored. The paper presents a mathematical model for the coordination of the supply chain operating a food recovery policy. The model determines the optimal time for withdrawing the products from the shelves and the quantity to be donated or sent to the livestock market maximizing the profit of the coordinated system and showing that it outperforms the profit in absence of such a strategy.