REVIEW

Food loss and food waste research in the Arab world:a systematic review

Mohamad G. Abiad1& Lokman I. Meho2,3

Received: 25 July 2017 /Accepted: 21 February 2018 /Published online: 26 March 2018# Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature and International Society for Plant Pathology 2018

AbstractFood loss and food waste are recognized as two of the most challenging dilemmas facing the world today with serious repercussionson food security, the environment, and global as well as regional and national economies. This is not different in the Arab countrieswhere the food loss and food waste generated per person sometimes exceeds 210 kg per year. Literature searches indicate there is apaucity of applied studies that investigate the drivers, sources, management, quantification, policies, interventions, and initiatives toreduce food loss and food waste in the Arab world, a region with more than 400 million inhabitants. Despite the importance of thetopic, only twenty-five relevant articles were identified, providing limited data on food loss and food waste generation. The studiesalso use sampling procedures that do not allow for generalization of results over the Arab region or even for making comparisonsamong studies. The review concludes that further research on food loss and food waste along the food supply chain in the Arab worldis necessary with a focus on trends, causes, and social, technological, behavioral, attitudinal, and cultural drivers. Investigatingenvironmental and economic implications along with policy development and coping strategies, as well as consumer attitudestowards waste in general and food waste in particular are also important topics to be researched, especially given the variation incultural and religious practices across the Arab world. The generation of such information and knowledge is indispensable for takingremedial action towards mitigating the problem of food loss and food waste.

Keywords Foodwaste . Food loss . Developing countries . Arab countries

1 Introduction

Food loss and food waste are among the most challenging pre-dicaments currently facing human kind. In recent years, govern-mental and non-governmental organizations have drawn atten-tion to lost or wasted food and their implications for food

security, sustainability, and the environment. In fact, food lossand food waste are creating major ethical dilemmas as morethan 925 million people globally continue to suffer from under-nourishment (FAO 2011, 2015; Oelofse and Nahman 2013) andas demand for food intensifies worldwide (FAO 2014).

Although there is no clear agreement on the definitions ofBfood loss^ and Bfood waste,^ the literature distinguishes be-tween the two. BFood loss^ can be described as a decrease inedible food in quantity or quality, occurring during produc-tion, postharvest, and processing; and Bfood waste^ as anyraw or cooked quality food along the value chain which issuitable for human consumption but ultimately ends up un-consumed or discarded, usually at the retail or consumer endof the chain, or process (FAO 2015; Gustavsson et al. 2011;Pfaltzgraff et al. 2013). Together, they are known as Bfoodsupply chain losses,^ referring to each stage along the chainwhere a given proportion of food, that is initially meant forconsumption, does not reach the intended consumer (FAO2011; Gustavsson et al. 2011; Kummu et al. 2012; Millerand Welch 2013; Parfitt et al. 2010; Richter and Bokelmann2016; Willersinn et al. 2017). For the purposes of this paper,

* Mohamad G. Abiadma192@aub.edu.lb

Lokman I. Meholmeho@aub.edu.lb

1 Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Faculty of Agriculturaland Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, P. O. Box11-0236, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon

2 University Libraries, American University of Beirut, P. O. Box11-0236, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon

3 Department of Political Studies and Public Administration, Facultyof Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut, P. O. Box11-0236, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon

Food Security (2018) 10:311–322https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-018-0782-7

we will use both concepts interchangeably, and they will bereferred to in the text as FLW (food loss and food waste).

About 1.3 billion tons of edible foodstuffs produced for hu-man consumption – a third of global food production – arewasted every year along the supply chain from production toconsumption (Gustavsson et al. 2011). This portion of lost andwasted food is enough to lift one eighth of the global populationout of undernourishment (FAO et al. 2012) and to mitigate theglobal challenge of meeting the increased demand for food,which could reach 50 to 70% by 2050 (FAO 2009).

The amount of food waste varies drastically among countriesand is influenced by income, industrialization, and developmentlevels (Chalak et al. 2016). In developing or low-income coun-tries, around two-thirds of the food losses occur at the post-harvest and processing levels. This is mostly attributed to pooragricultural practices, technical limitations, financial and laborrestrictions, and inadequate infrastructure for storage, process-ing, and transport (Gustavsson et al. 2011). On the other hand, indeveloped or medium- to high-income countries, a considerablefraction of wasted food occurs at consumption, which is largelydriven by the consumers’ values, behaviors, and attitudes (Bondet al. 2013; Gustavsson et al. 2011).

FLW is a serious nutritional insecurity concern as it reducesthe availability of food intended for human consumption.Furthermore, FLW has grave environmental, economic, natu-ral resource, and poverty implications (Gustavsson et al. 2011;Lipinski et al. 2013; Rutten 2013a, b). In terms of the envi-ronment, when disposed into landfills, a substantial proportionof food waste gets converted to methane, a greenhouse gaswith a global warming potential twenty-five times greater thancarbon dioxide (IPCC 2007). In addition, food waste tends todegrade faster than other landfilled organic materials, with ahigher methane yield and no contribution to biogenic seques-tration in landfills (Levis and Barlaz 2011); thus the extrainterest in reducing food waste (Thyberg and Tonjes 2016).According to Rutten (2013a), FLW represents squandered in-vestment in agriculture; causes unnecessary greenhouse gasemissions; and generates enormous inefficiencies in the usageof water, energy, land, fertilizers, and labor.

Economically, initiatives to reduce FLW usually has a nega-tive impact on farmers because such initiatives may result in anincrease in food supply. On the other hand, reduction in FLW isbeneficial to both food processors who may be able to sell moreat lower prices, and to consumers who could potentially savemoney as available foods become more affordable (Rutten2013a). Studies have also found that efforts to reduce FLW indeveloped countries might eventually lower food prices in de-veloping countries (Rutten 2013a, b), save resources that can beutilized to feed the hungry and boost the efficiency along theirsupply chains (Buzby and Hyman 2012). Such changes arebelieved to improve accessibility to nutritious foods among vul-nerable households (Almdal et al. 2003; Barton et al. 2000;Brinkman et al. 2010; Gustavsson et al. 2011). Halving FLW

along the supply chain could help to meet the nutritional needsof about 63 million under-nourished people from developingand low income regions (Munesue et al. 2015).

There is no doubt that the considerable quantities of food thatare lost or wasted annually could have a large positive impact onefforts to curb global hunger. For this reason, efforts have beendirected toward the development and implementation of variousinnovative measures to mitigate FLW (Ruel and Alderman2013). Approaches and solutions targeting FLW mitigationalong the supply chain have been explored in various regionsaround the world both at the pre-consumer level (i.e., the post-harvest, handling, storage, and processing levels) as well as atthe retail and consumption levels (Bond et al. 2013; Gustavssonet al. 2011; James and Ngarmsak 2011; Langelaan and Da Silva2013; Lipinski et al. 2013; Quested et al. 2013; Stenmarck et al.2011; Stuart 2009; Verghese et al. 2013, 2015; Buzby andHyman 2012). In terms of research, literature shows that thenumber of studies on FLW has been increasing rapidly with aspecial focus on waste-to-energy conversion (Bouallagui et al.2003; Kim et al. 2011; Matsakas and Christakopoulos 2015;Ouda et al. 2016; Pham et al. 2015; Zhang et al. 2007), theextraction of high-value compounds and value-added productssuch as animal feed, organic acids, microbial gums, polysaccha-rides, amino acids, and enzymes (Arora et al. 2002; Lin et al.2013), and on the production of organic compost (Lin et al.2013). Literature reviews of FLW studies have previously fo-cused on developed countries (Darlington et al. 2009; Canaliet al. 2017; De Steur et al. 2016; Garcia-Garcia et al. 2016;Schneider 2013a, 2013b; Schott et al. 2016; Thyberg et al.2015), whereas comprehensive and systematic reviews on foodwaste pertaining to developing countries remain scarce. In viewof this, it was decided to address part of this literature gap bysynthesizing the current knowledge available on FLW in theArab world – a region composed of twenty-two countries inthe Middle East/Near East and North Africa (MENA andNENA regions) with a total population of 410 million.

Rough estimates of FLW in Arab countries suggest that 44%of the food handled along the pre-consumption supply chain iseither lost or wastedwhile about 34% of food served is wasted ator during consumption (HLPE 2014). Such high levels of FLWare alarming, especially as they increase dependency on importssince the natural resources necessary for food production arescarce across the Arab region (FAO 2015). The FLW in Arabcountries is estimated to be 31% of cereals, 33% of roots andtubers, 29% of oil seeds and pulses, 56% of fruits and vegeta-bles, 23% of meat and poultry, 30% of fish and seafood, and20% of milk and dairy, which amount annually to 210 kg percapita, as compared to 95–115 kg per person per year in Europeand North America (Gustavsson et al. 2011), 170 kg per capitaper year in South Africa (Oelofse and Nahman 2013), andaround 139 kg per capita per year in Singapore according toSingapore’s National Environmental Agency (NEA 2016). Inview of the region’s limited natural resources, a high

312 Abiad M.G., Meho L.I.

dependency on food imports (up to 50% of what is needed tomeet their nutritional requirements (FAO 2013a, 2014)), lowagricultural productivity, and rapid population growth, suchlevels of food waste in the Arab world are not only uneconom-ical but detrimental to both the environment and the region’sfood security. Furthermore, the current situation in most Arabcountries is aggravated by conflicts, resulting in 8.7 millionpeople in Syria unable to meet their basic food needs, 14.4million in Yemen, 1.6 million people in the West Bank andGaza Strip, 3.2 million in Iraq, and 3.5 million in the Sudan(FAO 2017a; b; c; d; 2013b) in addition to the millions of un-documented people in Libya, Mauritania, and Somalia. Thepersistence of instability and conflict has increased poverty ratesacross Arab countries where 81% of the population in Somalialives below the national poverty line, and 80% in Syria, 55% inYemen, 47% in Sudan, 28% in Iraq, 26% in Egypt and 23% inDjibouti (Ghafar and Masri 2016; The World Bank 2017).These people cannot be offered better food security if theamount and mode of food wastage is not documented and ex-plained – tasks that require funding as well as experts willing towork in conflict zones, and locals who know the necessarylanguages and dialects and are trained in proper data collection.

The present review sheds light on research carried out onfood loss and food waste generation as well as mitigationefforts across the Arab world. It investigates the drivers,sources, and quantification of FLW as well as the policies,interventions, and initiatives to reduce FLW. This review isimportant not only because it informs scientists, governments,and policy makers, among others, on the state of research inthis area, but it also synthesizes the information for them andhelps them understand where the gaps are and identify thefuture research needs in the region. It also introduces Arabas well as international researchers to databases and searchingmethods rarely used in systematic reviews.

2 Methodology

2.1 Search strategy

The structure of the present systematic review followed appli-cable guidelines set in the Preferred Reporting Items forSystematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) state-ment. In addition, the search for data, synthesis, andconceptualization of data from relevant studies was based onPetticrew and Roberts (2008) and complemented with a qual-itative content analysis process suggested by Hsieh andShannon (2005).

Studies reporting food waste in the Arab nations were iden-tified by searching 15 different databases including Agricola(1900 to present), CAB Direct (1918 to present), Directory ofOpen Access Journals (which includes over 250 Arab period-icals), EBSCO’s Academic Search Ultimate (1900 to present),

Embase (1945 to present), Food Science and TechnologyAbstracts (1968 to present), ProQuest Central (1900 to pres-ent), Scopus (1823 to present), Science and EducationPublishing, (2012 to present), Web of Science (1898 to pres-ent), as well as five Arab and Middle Eastern-related data-bases—Al Manhal (1973 to present), E-Marefa (1950 to pres-ent), Index Islamicus, Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals(2005 to present), and Middle Eastern and Central AsianStudies (1946 to present). The search strategy was comprisedof two key components:

i. Food waste-related concepts: domestic waste(s), foodloss(es), food waste(s), kitchen waste(s), leftovers, lostfood, plate waste(s), and wasted food; AND

ii. Countries and populations: Algeria, Arab, Bahrain,Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait,Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Middle East, Morocco,North Africa, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emiratesand Yemen.

In order to maximize the recall of relevant publications, wesearched for all of these two sets of keywords with differentpermutations, in all fields (excluding full-text), in each data-base. We also searched Google Scholar for articles that includ-ed food loss/food waste with one of the country/populationnames in the title field. The search, which was carried out inthe spring and repeated in December 2017, targeted journalarticles, book chapters, conference papers, and grey literaturepublished in Arabic, English, or French, and resulted in a totalof 1113 papers.

2.2 Inclusion criteria and selection process

For a paper to be selected for inclusion in the present study,two conditions were required:

i. The main topic of the paper is food loss or food waste inone or more Arab countries

ii. The document had to be a journal article, review article,conference paper, book chapter, or grey literature. Othertypes of material were excluded (e.g., abstracts, editorialmaterial, letters to editors, and/or notes)

After removing duplicate items, the number of publica-tions left was 773. During the second round of selection,we assessed the title and abstract fields, which identified717 irrelevant items. We then examined the full-text of theremaining 56 papers and ended up with a final list of 25relevant papers, divided by document type as follows: 21journal articles, one review article, and three conferencepapers. The complete selection and relevant judgmentprocess is illustrated in Fig. 1.

Food loss and food waste research in the Arab world: a systematic review 313

3 Results and discussion

Interest in FLW research has been increasing steadily and at avery fast rate globally, going up from 65 papers in 2007 to 640in 2016 – a ten-fold increase in a span of ten years, in com-parison to only a 60% increase for all subject areas together(Elsevier 2017) as shown in Fig. 2a. Although FLW researchhas increased in the Arab world, productivity/publication ratehas fluctuated from one year to the next, and continues torepresent a very small proportion of the world’s overall re-search output at 2.5% as shown in Fig. 2b. This deficiencyin research productivity on FLW in the Arab world can beattributed to several possible factors that are not mutually ex-clusive, such as a lack of interest in the subject matter amonglocal scientists; the small number of local scientists in the fieldof food loss and foodwaste; lack of funding and governmentalsupport; and/or difficulties in carrying out such research in theArab world as a result of cultural and religious barriers.

One of the main findings of our literature search is that dataon FLW in most Arab countries is scarce or even unavailable.For ten of the twenty-two Arab countries there was not asingle research article on FLW (Fig. 3). Among these ten

countries, four (Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, and Qatar) arethe smallest countries in the Arab world, with populations thatrange from 800,000 to 2.3 million, while the rest are eitherpoor countries with very low per capita GDP and low literacyrates (Mauritania, Somalia, and Sudan) or countries that havesuffered and continue to suffer from protracted conflicts(Libya, Syria, and Yemen). Of the twelve published countries,Iraq stands out as the most productive. The majority of theidentified articles focused on household-generated waste andits composition (AbuQdais et al. 1997; Yasir and Abudi 2009;Elmenofi et al. 2015; Sulaymon et al. 2010; Abouabdillahet al. 2015; Al-Maliky and ElKhayat 2012; Charbel et al.2016), whereas only a few investigated FLWalong other partsof the food supply value chain including the retail and hospi-tality industry in the Arab world (Al-Domi et al. 2011; Al-Othman and Hewedy 1996; Al-Shoshan 1992; El-Mobaidhet al. 2006; Jamil et al. 2016; Pirani and Arafat 2016). It isworth mentioning that no attention has been given to otherparts of the supply chain, such as agricultural production,transportation, storage, and/or processing. Few of the identi-fied studies have tapped into the drivers of food wastage or theconsumers’ attitudinal and behavioral aspects associated with

Documents in Arabic, English and French found through database searching (n=1,113)

Duplicates/overlap excluded (n=340)

Irrelevant documents excluded (717)

Irrelevant topic and articles covering food waste outside the

22 Arab countries

Titles and abstracts screened (n=773)

Irrelevant articles excluded (31)

Text does not meet inclusion criteria

Full text examined (n=56)

Articles included in systematic review (n=25)

Fig. 1 Flow chart of the searchand selection process of studieson Bfood loss^ and Bfood waste^in the Arab world

314 Abiad M.G., Meho L.I.

foodwaste generation (Abouabdillah et al. 2015; Capone et al.2016; Charbel et al. 2016; Elmenofi et al. 2015; Pirani andArafat 2016; Abdelradi 2018).

Our investigation points to interesting trends in food wast-age and suggests areas of interest to be further elucidated. Forexample, in rich and stable Arab countries (i.e., Kuwait,Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates),significant waste is generated during social and religious

occasions especially during the fasting month of Ramadan(Elmenofi et al. 2015). In that holy month, food waste ishighest in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia,United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other GulfCooperation Council (GCC) countries (Etaam-Saudi FoodBank 2012; CIHEAM and FAO 2016). Furthermore, duringRamadan, 30 to 50% of the food prepared in Saudi Arabia isthrown away; similarly, 25% in Qatar and 40% in the United

Fig. 3 Published scientificresearch distributed across theArab countries

Fig. 2 Bar chart showing the number of publications per year during the last decade on Bfood loss^ and Bfood waste^ both (a) globally and (b) in Arabcountries. ‘_____’ shows the cumulative number of publications over the past 10 years. Source: Scopus (May 2017)

Food loss and food waste research in the Arab world: a systematic review 315

Table1

Summaryof

theresearch

studiesin

Arabcountriesmeetin

ginclusioncriteriaof

thesystem

aticreview

Locationof

study

Scope

Yeardata

collected

Datacollectionmethod

Reference

Algeria,E

gypt,

Lebanon,

Morocco

and

Tunisia

Bread

andbakery

wastage

inMediterraneanArabcountries;food

purchase

behavior

andhouseholdfood

expenditu

re;k

nowledgeof

food

labelling

inform

ation;

attitudes

towards

food

waste;extentand

econom

icvalue

ofhouseholdfood

waste;w

illingnessandinform

ationneedsto

reduce

food

waste

2015

Onlinesurvey

conductedover

5monthsandincluded

1122

adultconsumers

Caponeetal.(2016)

Egypt

Household

food

wastefocusing

onfood

purchase

behavior

andhousehold

food

expenditu

re,knowledgeof

food

labelinginform

ation,attitudes

towards

food

waste,quantity

andvalueof

food

wasted,extent

ofhouseholdfood

waste,and,w

illingnessto

change

topreventand/or

reduce

food

waste

2015

Onlinesurvey

andface-to-face

interviewswith

arandom

sampleof

181adultsover

aperiod

of4months

Elm

enofietal.(2015).

Egypt

Classifyeconom

yclasssolid

wastesresultedfrom

in-flig

htcatering

2004

12representativ

eEgypt

Airflights

El-Mobaidh

etal.(2006)

Cairo,E

gypt

Identifythefactorsinfluencingtheindividual’sfood

wastedecisions,

aswellasstudytheeffectof

thesefactorson

food

wastebehavior

2016

1000

self-filled

questionnaires

Abdelradi

(2018)

Al-Kut

City,Iraq

Investigatehouseholdbehavior

towards

solid

wastemanagem

ent;

determ

inethequantityandcompositio

nof

householdwastegenerated

2009

Survey

of80

households

andwastesamples

collected

ona

daily

basisover

aperiod

of7months

Sulaym

onetal.(2010)

Baghdad,Iraq

Solid

wastecompositio

n2012–2013

2520

samples

collected

over

aperiod

of6months

Abd

Al-Kareem

(2014)

Baghdad,Iraq

Analyze

kitchenfood

wasteathouseholdleveland

itsdeterm

inants

2011–2012

Survey

anddatafrom

20families

over

aperiod

of8months

Al-MalikyandElKhayat

(2012)

Basrah,Iraq

Solid

wastecompositio

n2011–2012

Not

reported

Abbas,A

l-Rekabi,&

Yousif

(2016)

Erbil,

Iraq

Estim

atethequantityandmonetaryvalueof

wastedgrainproductsin

restaurants

2016

Survey

of50

random

lyselected

restaurants

Jamiletal.(2016)

Karbala,Iraq

Quantifyhouseholdwastegenerationandcomposition

2014

Collected

70householdwasteover

winterandsummer

from

35districts

Al-Mas'udi

andAl-Haydari

(2015)

Mosul

City,Iraq

Determinephysicalandchem

icalcompositio

nof

householdwaste

2009

1680

wastesamples

collected

over

6months

Al-Raw

iand

Al-Tayyar

(2012)

Mosul

City,Iraq

Household

wastegeneratio

nandcompositio

n2008

252householdwastesamples

collected

andanalyzed

inadditio

nto

face-to-face

survey

ofhouseholds

inselected

districts

Al-Raw

iand

Al-Tayyar

(2012)

Nassiriyah,Iraq

Quantifyhouseholdwastegenerationanddeterm

ineits

compositio

nandcharacteristics

2008

65households

sampled

from

3differentd

istricts;w

astewas

collected

andanalyzed

YasirandAbudi

(2009)

Amman,Jordan

Food

platewasteam

onguniversity

students;factorsinfluencingdecision

towastefood

2008–2009

Random

sampleof

600students;foodwastecollected,

weighed,and

analyzed

aftereach

meal

Al-Dom

ietal.(2011)

Kuw

aitC

ity,K

uwait

Wastage

ofmeatand

basicfoodstuffam

onghouseholds;strategiesto

improvefood

security

2010

Sampleof

1300

self-adm

inisteredsurveys

Aljamal&

Bagnied

(2012)

Lebanon

Household

food

wastein

Lebanon

focusing

on:k

nowledgeof

and

perceivedrelativ

eim

portance

offood

waste;attitudestowards

the

environm

ent,wasteandfood

waste;impactsof

behaviorsregarding

food

andfood

managem

entonfood

wastage;quantity

andvalueof

food

wasted;

andbarriersandwillingnessto

behavioralchange

2015

Sampleof

215adultconsumerssurveyed

onlin

eover

aperiod

of3months

Charbeletal.(2016)

Meknes,Morocco

Consumer

know

ledgeandperceptio

nof,and

attitudetowards,foodwaste

andmanagem

ent;food

wastecost;b

arriers&

willingnessto

change

behaviour

2015

122self-adm

inisteredquestio

nnaires

Abouabdillah

etal.(2015)

Muscat,Oman

Characterizethemunicipalsolid

waste

2015

22samples

ofmunicipalwastefrom

3districtscollected

and

analyzed

forphysicalandchem

icalcomposition

Baawainetal.(2017)

Palestine(W

estB

ank

&GazaStrip)

Analyze

residentialsolid

wastemanagem

entp

ractices;d

eterminewaste

generationrate,com

ponents,andwastedisposalmethods

2005

Survey

of4073

households

over

twomonths

Al-Khatib

andArafat(2010)

SaudiA

rabia

Highlight

theneed

andim

portance

ofpublicaw

arenesson

food

waste

2014

N/A

Al-Zahrani,K

.,&

Baig,M.

(2014)

Makkah,SaudiA

rabia

Assessthequantityof

food

served

andwastedduring

pilgrimage

2012

Survey

included

245pilgrims

Amara,A.A

.,Ham

dan,S.,

&Melibary,N.(2013)

Riyadh,SaudiA

rabia

Determinethemonetaryvalueof

edibleplatewastein

selected

hospitals

1988–1989

Platewastewas

measuredover

2-days

for6consecutive

mealsin

18hospitals;sam

pleincluded

554patientsand

205attendants

Al-Sh

oshan(1992)

316 Abiad M.G., Meho L.I.

Arab Emirates (Al-Fawaz 2015; Baldwin 2016; Khaishgi2015). The increase in food waste during Ramadan is attrib-uted to the preparation of extravagant meals that far exceed theneeds of families, and leftovers are thrown away (Zayat 2017),although such acts do not conformwith the teachings of Islam,where Muslims are asked to share excess food with the poor.In fact, Islam prohibits wastage in every aspect of one’s life,whether it is in time, energy, or food, as clarified in the fol-lowing verses of the Holy Quran:

It is He Who has brought into being gardens, the cultivat-ed and the wild, and date-palms, and fields with produceof all kinds, and olives and pomegranates, similar (inkind) and variegated. Eat of their fruit in season, but give(the poor) their due on harvest day. And do not waste, forGod does not love the wasteful. [Quran 6:141]O you who believe! Do not make unlawful the whole-some things which God has made lawful for you, butcommit no excess for God does not love those given toexcess. [Quran 5:87]

The teachings of the other Abrahamic religions,Christianity and Judaism, are not far from those of Islam,and consider wasting food as a sin. Do not join those whodrink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunk-ards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes themin rags. [Proverbs 23:20–21]. However, there is no availabledata in the Arab world on the amount of food wasted duringreligious events such as Christmas or any other Christian orJewish festive celebrations.

During social events, such as weddings, births, and deaths,food is usually prepared on a large scale, in many cases turn-ing into lavish shows flaunting wealth and social status. Forexample, food wasted at an average wedding in Mecca, SaudiArabia, can be sufficient to feed 250 hungry people. In 2016,the amount of food wasted in Makkah is enough to feed mil-lions going hungry globally (Arab News 2016). However,there is no available data on the amount of food waste gener-ated during such occasions across the Arab world.

Based on our findings, seven quantitative studies have beencarried out in the Arab region investigating the amount of foodwasted at the household level in Iraq, Oman, United ArabEmirates, and Palestine (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (AbuQdais et al. 1997; Al-Khatib and Arafat 2010; Al-Mas'udiand Al-Haydari 2015; Al-Rawi and Al-Tayyar 2012;Baawain et al. 2017; Sulaymon et al. 2010; Yasir and Abudi2009), and three studies have examined food waste generatedby sectors of the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia, Egypt,and Jordan (Al-Domi et al. 2011; Al-Shoshan 1992; El-Mobaidh et al. 2006). These studies strongly suggest that foodwaste generated at the household level varies from one coun-try to another: 68–150 kg per person per year in Oman, 62–76 kg per person per year in Iraq, 194–230 kg per person perT

able1

(contin

ued)

Locationof

study

Scope

Yeardata

collected

Datacollectionmethod

Reference

Riyadh,SaudiA

rabia

Analyze

chem

icalcompositio

nof

platefood

wasteam

onguniversity

students

1996

Survey

anddatacollectionfrom

90malecollege

students

over

6-dayperiod;6

0platewastesamples

collected

&an-

alyzed

Al-Othman

andHew

edy(1996)

Abu

Dhabi,U

nited

ArabEmirates

Household

food

wastegenerationandcomposition

1995

Survey

of40

houses

over

3weeks;analyzed840samples

Abu

Qdaisetal.(1997)

Abu

Dhabi,U

nited

ArabEmirates

Understanddriversandpathwaysforfood

wastegeneratio

nin

the

hospitalitysector;q

uantifythefood

wastealongthefood

servicechain

2012–2013

Survey

of45

hotelsandrestaurants

Pirani

andArafat(2016)

Food loss and food waste research in the Arab world: a systematic review 317

Table2

Summaryof

ongoingprojectsandinitiatives

acrosstheArabworldtargetingfood

wastereductionandraisingaw

areness(A

lgerianFoodBank,2013;E

gyptianFoodBank,2006;F

oodB

lessed,

2012;L

ebaneseFoodBank,

2012;S

AVEFOODinitiative,2011;U

nitedArabEmirates

FoodBank,2017)

Ongoing

project/Initiativ

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Country

Yearof

implem

entatio

n

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awarenessaboutfoodwaste.

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services.

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ungerandfood

wasteby

managingfood

losses

andwaste

Egypt

2006

Iraq

2011

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ofSaudiA

rabia

2011

Syria

2011

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2011

Jordan

2012

Lebanon

2012

Mauritania

2012

Sudan

2012

Algeria

2013

Palestine(W

estB

ank&

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2014

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2015

Som

alia

2015

UnitedArabEmirates

2017

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donorsto

food

recipients

Lebanon

2012

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Globalinitiativ

eon

food

losses

andwastereduction

Global

2013

Actionplan

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food

losses

andwastein

Kingdom

ofSaudiA

rabia

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waste

Kingdom

ofSaudiA

rabia

2014

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ent)

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restaurantsandcustom

ersto

usetake-away

leftover

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ebanon

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nprogram

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build

ingforfood

loss

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Egypt,L

ebanon

andJordan

2014

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waste

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2015

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North

Africa)

2015

Food

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entfor

food

security

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links

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portof

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Egypt

andTunisia

2016

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al-N

a‘am

ahInitiativeto

redirectunserved/surplus

food

from

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eddingsandhomes

totheless

fortunate

UnitedArabEmirates

2016

318 Abiad M.G., Meho L.I.

year in Palestine, and 177–400 kg per person per year in theUnited Arab Emirates.

FLWassessments in hospitals, on air flights, and at univer-sity canteens (Al-Shoshan (1992) reported that plate foodwaste generated at a general hospital in Saudi Arabia averagesbetween 24 and 32% of the presented portions, amounting to0.659–0.852 kg per person over three daily meals (breakfast,lunch, and dinner), whereas El-Mobaidh et al. (2006) wrotethat in-flight catering food waste on Egypt Air flights variesbetween 23 and 51% of food served, which amounts to 0.061–0.265 kg per person per meal. Finally, in a survey at a univer-sity canteen in Jordan, Al-Domi et al. (2011) estimated platefood waste at 0.070 kg per person per meal, which is equiva-lent to 13% of the average meal size. All other FLW studies onthe region are mainly qualitative. A summary of the twenty-five published studies from the Arab region is provided inTable 1, highlighting the location and scope of each studyalong with the methodology used for data collection, includ-ing the timeline, duration, sample type, and size.

Today there is increased global awareness regarding thethreats of sustainability on the food-supply base. This ac-knowledgment has unleashed initiatives and efforts by non-governmental associations such as Bawareness campaigns^and Bfood banks^ whose main objective is to mitigate foodwaste by collecting unserved food and channeling it to needypeople (Schneider 2013a). Table 2 provides a summary of theefforts and ongoing projects in Arab countries that focusmainly on reducing food waste or preventing edible food frombeing disposed into landfills. The data collected show that allinitiatives across the region are relatively young, dating backto 2010, with the exception of Egypt, where initiatives totackle food waste started in the mid-2000s. It is also worthhighlighting the fact that seven Arab countries (Comoros,Djibouti, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, and Yemen) don’thave any existing or even planned initiatives targeting themitigation of FLW.

4 Conclusion

There is no doubt that the economic and environmental impactof FLW is tremendous around the globe, but is especially so inregions that depend on food imports to meet their nutritionalrequirements and have limited potential to increase local foodproduction. Moreover, research on FLW is scarce and there isa lack of reliable data, particularly concerning magnitude,causes, sources, drivers, and management, as well as policies,interventions, and initiatives directed at reducing FLW. This isparticularly the case in most Arab countries where reducingfood loss and food waste is vital for a sustainable food systemand is key for the region’s food security. The distribution ofFLW along the food chain and their causes, as well as solu-tions to reduce them are very important. Accordingly,

quantification of the magnitude of food loss and food wastein the Arab world is essential for the development of effectivemeasures to prevent or reduce the FLW stream. Understandingthe extent of the FLW and its economic and environmentalimpact may provide incentives for people to take action to-wards mitigating food loss and food waste.

The present review shows that nearly half of the Arabcountries have not published a single research article onFLW and that further research and knowledge sharing aregreatly needed to not only understand the reasons why peoplewaste food, but also to identify what they waste and howmuch, and how to avoid, prevent, and/or reduce it. In addition,more research is needed to explore the cultural and socialaspects, or drivers, of food waste generation in the Arabworld; to investigate the environmental and economic impli-cations of FLW; to assess the effectiveness of policy measuresand coping strategies; to evaluate the impact of packaging,labeling, marketing, retailing, and distribution; as well as toassess the impact of FLWon food and nutrition security in theArab region. Moreover, in a region with diverse cultures andreligious beliefs, it is also worth exploring the associationbetween religion/religiosity and food waste generation as thismay be relevant when designing new policies and awarenesscampaigns that aim at minimizing FLW. This type of researchcan be performed through effective collaboration between ac-ademic institutions across the region and in the public andprivate sectors. Such collaborations will contribute to estab-lishing instruments and policy tools that can help reduce FLWat all stages along the food supply chain. Furthermore, theseefforts need to be coupled with knowledge-sharing platformsthat can facilitate dissemination of attained information, en-able effective implementation of the newly developed policiesand guidelines, as well as provide a setting for capacity build-ing and awareness campaigns aimed at FLW reduction.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Dr. Imad P. Saoudof the Department of Biology of the American University of Beirut(AUB) and Ms. Mary Clare Leader, Corresponding Editor of the AUBPress, for their valuable feedback and editorial comments on themanuscript.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict ofinterest.

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Dr. Mohamad Abiad is anAssociate Professor of FoodProcessing and Packaging at theFaculty of Agricultural and FoodSciences, American University ofBeirut (AUB). He also holds anadjunct faculty position at theSchool of Packaging at MichiganState University (MSU). Dr.Abiad’s research focuses on in-vestigating issues related to sus-tainability and recycling in theagro-food sector, mainly workingon food waste mitigation and con-version into added value prod-

ucts. His work also includes studying the shelf-life, packaging and rheo-logical properties of traditional local foods.

Lokman I. Meho completed hisPhD in library and informations c i e n c e i n 2 0 0 1 a t T h eUniversity of North Carolina,Chapel Hill. Before joining theAmerican University of Beirut in2009 as University Librarian, hewas a tenured associate professorat the School of Library andInformation Science at IndianaUniversity, Bloomington. Dr.Meho is the author of many pa-pers and his research focuses onthe use of bibliometric methodsfor research assessment.

322 Abiad M.G., Meho L.I.