Food processing with an expiring shelf life in Russian retail chains as a popular tool in the global green agenda

Abstract

Reducing and recycling expiring food in retail is not only a matter of resource management, but also of creating environmental awareness among consumers. The main task of modern retail trade is to work ahead and maximize the use of goods in the production, without bringing them to the disposal process. Domestic retailers, in their development programs, implement solutions to minimize food waste through discounts, food sharing and other measures. In this article, we focus on the process of processing vegetables and fruit in retail until their expiration dates, as the category of goods leading in terms of the share of waste generation in retail trade. The purpose of the study is to determine the economic efficiency of processing vegetables and fruits in retail depending on the product subcategory and testing hypotheses based on the results obtained. The authors summarized data from foreign studies on the processing of food waste in retail. An analysis of the measures used by federal food retailers in Russia to reduce and recycle products with expiring dates was carried out. The results of an experiment are presented in which the processing of goods in the «fruit and vegetables» category is considered according to data from 55 stores of a regional retail chain for 2019-2022. The structure of processing by product subcategories was studied in terms of turnover and margins. The result of the study made it possible to test hypotheses about the economic efficiency of processing vegetables and fruit in retail, which had not been considered previously in other studies. Measures for processing vegetables and fruit have been tested, aimed at reducing the share of write-offs in the turnover of food retailers. The study made it possible to identify priority subcategories of vegetables and fruit for processing based on economic efficiency.