Economic and environmental assessment of food waste reduction measures - Trialing a time-temperature indicator on salmon in HelloFresh meal boxes

Food waste is a major challenge for society, causing economic, environmental and social problems. Time-temperature indicators showing a dynamic expiry date are discussed as one promising technology to help reducing food waste along the food supply chain of perishable foods like fish. In the present article, the implementation of the time-temperature indicator Keep-it® as an alternative date coding method on prepacked salmon in HelloFresh meal boxes is assessed regarding its effectiveness on reducing food waste and its sustainability across the economic and environmental dimension. In a first step, an online survey among 1589 HelloFresh customers was used to determine consumers’ understanding and perception of the Keep-it® indicator and to estimate its potential impact on food waste-related behavior. Results show that the Keep-it® indicator was perceived to be reliable, helpful and intuitive to use (mean values of these attributes range between 3.7 and 4.3 on a five-point Likert scale). In contrast, more than half of the participants could not correctly interpret the meaning of currently used expiry dates (use-by and best before). Furthermore, results indicate that the Keep-it® indicator has the potential to reduce food waste at consumer level. In a second step, results of the survey were used to quantify the potential amount of food waste reduction and to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of the Keep-it® indicator implementation along the food chain using the calculated Cost-Benefit Ratio. Per one EUR invested, using the Keep-it® indicator instead of the currently used use-by date results in 0.1 kg food saved from becoming waste, 0.44 kg CO₂eq less emitted and 2.05 € less spent.