Quantification, Environmental Impact, and Behavior Management: A Bibliometric Analysis and Review of Global Food Waste Research Based on CiteSpace

Abstract

With the help of CiteSpace software and the Web of Science core collection database, we quantitatively analyzed the global research progress of food waste, explored the core and hotspots, and compared and analyzed the methods and findings based on the literature. The results show the following: (1) The studies in the field are multidisciplinary, with researchers from different countries drawing from each other’s work. The United States, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden are the top five in terms of the number of articles published. (2) Research hotspots have gradually transitioned from food waste treatment processes to the quantification of food waste, resource and environmental impacts, consumer behaviors, and interventions, with quantification studies and food waste in the restaurant industry being the emergent hotspots in recent years. (3) Quantitative studies were mostly conducted based on two or more methods, and a larger proportion of studies were based on secondary data. In terms of per capita food waste, the amount from eating out at restaurants was higher than eating at home, and higher in developed countries than others. (4) The environmental footprint implied by food waste reflects the inefficiency and unsustainability of the food supply chain, and the footprint of meat food is much larger than that of other types. (5) The future trend in behavioral research is to conduct in-depth randomized intervention studies to explore the impact of different interventions and policies on food waste behavior and to strengthen cooperation among experts in various fields to dig deeper into theoretical approaches, policy systems, and science and technology to propose more strategic and sustainable food consumption and promote the transformation of agricultural food systems.