Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Perspective
  • Published:

Semantic and philosophical approaches for advancing the identification and measurement of food waste

Nature Food volume 6, pages 547–552 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Many global food-waste frameworks do not account for multiple concurrent factors, such as culture, time, context and the aims of the stakeholders. Using the semantic tools developed in the philosophical fields of analytic metaphysics and analytic ontology, we propose a framework to explore and document the conceptual nuances of food waste. By discussing food waste from the positions of substantivalism, adjectivalism and adverbialism, we account for the breadth of food-waste contexts to improve representation and communication in technical settings dealing with identification and measurement, such as report writing and policy development.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hoehn, D. et al. A critical review on food loss and waste quantification approaches: is there a need to develop alternatives beyond the currently widespread pathways? Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 188, 106671 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Parfitt, J., Barthel, M. & Macnaughton, S. Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365, 3065–3081 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Evans, D. Food Waste. Home Consumption, Material Culture and Everyday Life (Bloomsbury, 2014).

  4. Soma, T. (Re)framing the food waste narrative: infrastructures of urban food consumption and waste in Indonesia. Indonesia 105, 173–190 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Nicholes, M. J., Quested, T. E., Reynolds, C., Gillick, S. & Parry, A. D. Surely you don’t eat parsnip skins? Categorising the edibility of food waste. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 147, 179–188 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Schanes, K., Dobernig, K. & Gözet, B. Food waste matters—a systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications. J. Clean. Prod. 182, 978–991 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Boiteau, J. M. & Pingali, P. Can we agree on a food loss and waste definition? An assessment of definitional elements for a globally applicable framework. Glob. Food Sec. 37, 100677 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zeb, A., Soininen, J.-P. & Sozer, N. Data harmonisation as a key to enable digitalisation of the food sector: a review. Food Bioprod. Process. 127, 360–370 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tomich, T. P. et al. Why do we need food systems informatics? Introduction to this special collection on smart and connected regional food systems. Sustainability 15, 6556 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Knorr, D. & Augustin, M. A. Preserving the food preservation legacy. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 63, 9519–9538 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Foellmer, J., Liboiron, M., Rechenburg, A. & Kistemann, T. How Do the Cultural Contexts of Waste Practices Affect Health and Well-Being? (World Health Organization, 2022).

  12. Gille, Z. From the Cult of Waste to the Trash Heap of History. The Politics of Waste in Socialist and Postsocialist Hungary (Indiana Univ. Press, 2007).

  13. Arafat, H. A., Al-Khatib, I. A., Daoud, R. & Shwahneh, H. Influence of socio-economic factors on street litter generation in the Middle East: effects of education level, age and type of residence. Waste Manag. Res. 25, 363–370 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Hoppe, T., Bressers, H., de Bruijn, T. & Franco-Garcia, L. Street litter reduction programs in the Netherlands: reflections on the implementation of the Dutch litter reduction program for 2007–2009. Lessons from a public private partnership in environmental policy. Environ. Eng. Manag. J. 12, 1657–1668 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Varzi, A. C. On the interplay between logic and metaphysics. Linguist. Philos. Investig. 8, 13–36 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Divers, J. The modal status of the Lewisian analysis of modality. Mind 123, 861–872 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Divers, J. & Fletcher, J. (Once again) Lewis on the analysis of modality. Synthese 197, 4645–4668 (2020).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. Bovay, J. & Zhang, W. A century of profligacy? The measurement and evolution of food waste. Agric. Resour. Econ. Rev. 49, 375–409 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Barles, S. in The Basic Environmental History (eds Agnoletti, M. & Neri Serneri, S.) 199–226 (Springer, 2014).

  20. Reynolds, C., Soma, T., Spring, C. & Lazell, J. (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Food Waste Parts IV and V (Routledge, 2020).

  21. The State of Food and Agriculture 2019: Moving Forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019); http://www.fao.org/3/ca6030en/ca6030en.pdf

  22. Bellemare, M. F., Çakir, M., Peterson, H. H., Novak, L. & Rudi, J. On the measurement of food waste. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 99, 1148–1158 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Varzi, A. C. Review of André Gallois’s ‘Occasions of identity. A study in the metaphysics of persistence, change and sameness’ [Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998]. Australas. J. Philos. 79, 291–295 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Borghini, A. The adverbial theory of properties. Metaphysica 13, 107–123 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Besnier, N. & Narotzky, S. in Indeterminacy. Waste, Value and the Imagination (eds Alexander, C. & Sanchez, A.) 181–193 (Berghahn, 2019).

  26. Johnson, L. K. in The Routledge Handbook of Food Waste (eds Reynolds, C. et al.) 81–92 (Routledge, 2020).

  27. Barnhill, A. & Civita, N. Food waste: ethical imperatives & complexities. Physiol. Behav. 223, 112927 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Keefe, R. Vagueness: supervaluationism. Philos. Compass 3, 315–324 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Arp, R., Smith, B. & Spear, A. D. Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology (MIT Press, 2015).

  30. Stojanov, R. et al. Food waste ontology: a formal description of knowledge from the domain of food waste. In Proc. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) 5190–5194 (IEEE, 2019).

  31. Dooley, D. M. et al. FoodOn: a harmonized food ontology to increase global food traceability, quality control and data integration. npj Sci. Food 2, 23 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Citizen Food Waste Attitudes and Behaviours Out of Home (Waste and Resources Action Programme, 2023); https://www.wrap.ngo/sites/default/files/2023-02/WRAP_Citizen_food_waste_attitudes_and_behaviours_out_of_home.pdf

  33. Moynihan, C. Sharing the wealth at a dumpster divers’ feast. New York Times (27 August 2010); https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/nyregion/28metjournal.html?searchResultPosition=1

  34. Victor, B. After truck spills on highway, ‘Alfredo sauce is everywhere’. New York Times (31 August 2022); www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/us/alfredo-sauce-truck-spill.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

  35. Matchar, E. The rise of ‘zero-waste’ restaurants. Smithsonian Magazine (16 March 2020); https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/rise-zero-waste-restaurants-180974394/

  36. Burdeau, C. Can Xylella be stopped? Olive Oil Times (4 May 2018); https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/features/can-xylella-be-stopped/62948

  37. Do your throw away food if it has meat? Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/vegetarian/comments/pdd802/do_your_throw_away_food_if_it_has_meat/ (2021).

  38. Invited to a dinner party where I don’t eat the food. Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/etiquette/comments/111ecq9/invited_to_a_dinner_party_where_i_dont_eat_the/ (2023).

  39. Gibson, E. Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 banana removed from display. Dezeen https://www.dezeen.com/2019/12/09/maurizio-cattelans-120000-banana-galerie-perrotin-art-basel-miami/ (2019).

  40. Hurst, D. Growers go bananas over waste. The Sydney Morning Herald (7 January 2010); https://www.smh.com.au/business/growers-go-bananas-over-waste-20100106-lu7q.html

  41. About us Misfits Market https://www.misfitsmarket.com/about-us (2025).

  42. Gold, B. The ultimate guide to storing every type of food in the refrigerator for long-lasting freshness. Real Simple https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/food-waste-mistakes (2023).

  43. Hadjikakou, M. How cutting down on junk food could help save the environment. UNSW Newsroom https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2016/10/how-cutting-down-on-junk-food-could-help-save-the-environment (2016).

  44. Paudyal, R. Overeating: food waste that kills. Medium https://medium.com/talkplant/overeating-food-waste-that-kills-99248dd3052f (2019).

  45. Khoo, A. Dining etiquette: a guide to Chinese banquets. SilverKris https://silverkris.singaporeair.com/inspiration/food-drink/restaurants/dining-etiquette-guide-chinese-banquets/ (2017).

  46. Giles, D. B. in The Routledge Handbook of Food Waste (eds Reynolds, C. et al.) 23–36 (Routledge, 2019).

  47. Victory in the kitchen: the recipes that kept Britain going in the Second World War. Country Life https://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/victory-in-the-kitchen-easy-wartime-recipes-to-try-149921 (2017).

  48. Makarewicz, T. Waste less—enjoy more fresh produce. OHEA https://www.ohea.on.ca/blog/waste-less-enjoy-more-fresh-produce (2013).

  49. Wang, Y., Yuan, Z. & Tang, Y. Enhancing food security and environmental sustainability: a critical review of food loss and waste management. Resour. Environ. Sustain. 4, 100023 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Thompson, N. Ottawa urged to look into best before date system in bid to reduce grocery waste. CP24 https://www.cp24.com/news/2023/07/04/ottawa-urged-to-look-into-best-before-date-system-in-bid-to-reduce-grocery-waste/ (2023).

  51. Karanth, S., Feng, S., Patra, D. & Pradhan, A. K. Linking microbial contamination to food spoilage and food waste: the role of smart packaging, spoilage risk assessments and date labeling. Front. Microbiol. 14, 1198124 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  52. Messner, R., Richards, C. & Johnson, H. The ‘prevention paradox’: food waste prevention and the quandary of systemic surplus production. Agric. Hum. Values 37, 805–817 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Gooch, M. et al. The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste Update (Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International, 2024).

  54. Drackner, M. What is waste? To whom? An anthropological perspective on garbage. Waste Manag. Res. 23, 175–181 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A.B.’s research was supported by the European Research Council under the Grant Agreement (2025–2027): 101177427 – RELISH (Reframing European Gastronomy Legacy through Innovation, Sustainability and Heritage) – HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01, and by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under the grant schema ‘Departments of Excellence 2023-2027’, awarded to the Department of Philosophy ‘Piero Martinetti’ of the University of Milan for the Project ‘Techne’. N.P.’s research was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus - 5th Edition (number 2022.07434.CEECIND) and under the Exploratory Projects in All Scientific Domains 2023 (number 2023.12085.PEX) for the project EpiFoWa: An Epistemology of Food Waste. Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at: the online workshop jointly organized by the RECIPES research network and Culinary Mind on 14 September 2022; the Seven Hills Workshop on Nature, Norms, and Society held at the College of the Holy Cross, USA, on 23 September 2023; and the Department of Humanistic Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Italy, on 20 November 2024. We are grateful to the participants and organizers for their valuable feedback and suggestions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Andrea Borghini, Nicola Piras.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Andrea Borghini

  2. Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Nicola Piras

Authors
  1. Andrea Borghini
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nicola Piras
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.B. and N.P. reviewed the literature, prepared and edited the paper. They selected the theoretical options presented in the paper and developed the theoretical framework.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Borghini.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Food thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Borghini, A., Piras, N. Semantic and philosophical approaches for advancing the identification and measurement of food waste. Nat Food 6, 547–552 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01167-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01167-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing