Road to a more sustainable supply chain : A case study on a Swedish dairy terminal

Sammanfattning: Worldwide, around 17% of food waste produced in high income countries is constituted of dairy products. In Sweden, Dairy Company A has been dealing with food waste production throughout all their sites. Although it already practices actions such regarding food waste minimization such as biogas generation and animal food, reduction and prevention practices are still an area of opportunity. The aim of this study is to explore alternatives for food waste prevention in Company A CSE dairy supply chain and generate recommendations that help the company achieve a more sustainable supply chain.  This study furthermore proposes a 5-step research methodology to identify food waste causes and drivers, including data gathering mainly through interviews and analysis based on proposed frameworks in relevant literature. It was found that activities related to systematic root cause identification and information storage and sharing play a key role in improving existing practices that aim to reduce and minimize food waste production from a supply planning perspective.  The research identified and recommended not only to raise awareness, which is key to reducing food waste, but to put into a broader context how decisions taken by any planner could be influencing the sustainability of the supply chain. This could be done through the adoption of process-driven mechanisms to share relevant information as well as food waste root cause identification.