Essay On Food Losses And Wastes

1. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Food losses and wastes
Food loss and food waste refers to the reduction in edible food masses within a supply chain that produces food for human consumption. They occur throughout the supply chain right from the time of harvesting and collection of produce from the farm land, to the point of delivering the food to the retailer and even final consumption by households (Parfitt et al., 2010). They could happen in form of food spoilage or food spillage during the different processing stages. They could also occur as a result of food being destroyed by retailers or consumers. Food that gets spoilt or spilled before reaching the retail stage or the final consumer are said to be lost (food losses). These spoilage or spillage could be due to harvest, storage and transportation problems. However, food that is supposed to be consumed, but is

These molds can grow on different crops and foodstuffs like nuts, cereals, spices, apple juice, dried fruits and coffee, most times in warm and humid conditions (Kumar et al., 2008). Animal feeds with these nut cakes and cereals often contain mycotoxins. Mycotoxins can cause a lot of negative health effects in both humans and animals, when present in toxic concentrations. Such health effects range from kidney damage, gastrointestinal disturbances, and reproductive disorders to suppression of the immune system (Abdel-Wahhab and Kholif, 2008). Moreover, conversion of feed to animal protein usually reduces when mycotoxins are present in animal feed (Rodricks and Stoloff, 1977). The most important mycotoxins that most at times occur in feedstuffs are aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2 and M1), ochratoxin A, patulin, toxins produced by Fusarium molds (which includes fumonisins B1, B2 and B3), trichothecenes (which includes nivalenol, deoxynivalenol, T-2 and HT-2 toxin) and zearalenone (Nielsen and Smedsgaard,