The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set clear targets on access to food, its management and sustainable consumption. On one hand, SDGs 2 and 4 address poverty, hunger, and malnutrition globally, to be achieved by 2030, with SDG 2 specifically addressing food insecurity by decreasing chronic hunger, defined as a situation that occurs when people do not have access to enough nutritious food for an active and healthy life. On the other hand, and almost in contrast to this, SDG 12 (goal 12.3) aims to halve food waste at the retail and household level by 2030, as food waste burdens waste management systems and exacerbates food insecurity.

Global data underline the urgency of taking concerted action to reduce this mismatch. It emerges that about 10% of the world's total population struggles to meet the most basic needs and thus lives in extreme poverty (UN, 2020). In fact, even before COVID-19, baseline projections suggested that around 6% of the world's population would still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, thus missing the established SDG targets. These projections were exceeded due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing more than 70 million people worldwide into extreme poverty in 2020 (UN, 2020), with the total rising to 150 million in 2021 (World Bank, 2021).  In contrast, one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted (Gustavsson et al, 2011; UNEP, 2021) generating significant economic, environmental, and social impacts, with estimates suggesting that 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with unconsumed food (UNEP, 2021).

Therefore, in the context of food resource management, the joint need of improving individuals' access and affordability of food - thus ensuring adequate nutrition and healthy eating - and of reducing food waste – occurring mainly at the household level - should be straightaway addressed by counteracting what has been called in the literature as the paradox of “scarcity in abundance” (Campiglio and Rovati, 2019), where a percentage of the population facing food scarcity coexists with food wastage (Secondi et al, 2015), overproduction and abundant food availability (Stringer, 2016). At the same time, it is necessary to gather reliable and accurate data, through sample surveys or new data sources (such as big data) and/or to exploit the potential of existing official data to get a clear picture and constant monitoring of both access to food and thus food security/insecurity  (Beacom, 2022) and its efficient management, trying to minimize food waste. 

The aim of this session is to jointly present and discuss the contrasting phenomena of food poverty and food insecurity by providing an overview for different territorial contexts (Mexico, Italy and Sweden) and exploiting the potentials of both primary data (collected through ad hoc surveys), web scraping and official statistical data sources.  On one hand, the contributions in this session will focus on the ability of individuals to access food, measured through data collected in official sample surveys (i.e. official surveys on income and household expenditure) as well as new data sources focusing on the phenomena of food affordability, poverty, and food insecurity. On the other hand, the issue of food waste will be presented with a view to its sustainable management through digital tools whose traceability and constant monitoring could guarantee a more effective control and thus a reduction, towards the goals set by the 2030 Agenda.

The session will be organized with the presentation of four papers and their analysis by a discussant.  Then the floor will be opened for discussion by participants.

The first paper “Measuring Economic Access to Food and Insecurity through Official Statistics. Qualitative and quantitative scales in the Mexican context” by Stefano Marchetti (University of Pisa, Italy), Gaia Bertarelli (Sant'Anna - School of Advanced Studies, Pisa) and Adrian Vargas-Lopez (Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico) will focus on the measurement of economic access to food in Mexico and specifically on measuring food (in)security and food poverty using official statistical data at different territorial levels. By referring to the official National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure (ENIGH) carried out every two years in Mexico by the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI), this contribution will explore the comparability of qualitative and quantitative (headline) approaches and indicators to be used as a useful tool to constantly monitor these issues. Indeed, food insecurity level measured using both qualitative and quantitative scales can show different picture of the phenomenon, and here we investigate such differences. The paper will be presented by Stefano Marchetti (University of Pisa, Italy).

The second paper “Food affordability in Italy: an empirical study using big data sources” (Benedetti, Crescenzi, Laureti, Palumbo) will address the issue of economic access to food in Italy in terms of Spatial Price Indexes estimated at detailed territorial levels by using both official scanner and web-scraped data.  Scanner data, which include data of turnover and quantities for each product code sold in each outlet, have been provided by Italian National statistical Institute for the years 2019 and 2021. Scanner data refers to outlets belonging the modern retail chains located in all the Italian provinces in the most important 21 retail chains. The sample of outlets has been selected from the Nielsen universe, represented by 21 chains (out of 25) and about 29,000 outlets, covering more than 90% of total turnover of the modern distribution in Italy. This universe is stratified by province (107) and outlet type (hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounts, small retailers and specialist drugstores). On the other hand, web-scraped data refer to more than 460 supermarkets located in 19 Italian regions collected from February 2021. These data include price, retail chain and outlet, city and detailed information on each product (eg. brand, package size). Various weighted index formulas will be used for obtaining accurate measurement of food affordability in Italian provinces thus providing policy makers with useful tools to support their policy-making processes. The paper will be presented by Ilaria Benedetti (University of Tuscia).

The third paper – “Countering food waste through digital tools: statistical analysis at different territorial levels” by Luca Secondi (University of Tuscia, Italy), Ludovica Principato (Roma Tre University), Luigi Palumbo (University of Tuscia and Bank of Italy), Mengting Yu (University of Tuscia, Italy) will explore the possibility of achieving a sustainable food management by focusing on specific issues of meals purchased or consumed out-of-home. The collected data, obtained through digital tools, apps and web-scraping processes will be used to track and monitor the purchase of discounted food and products to be consumed/eaten at home as well as whether the leftover food taken out by consumers from restaurants is consumed or not at home, thus understanding the effectiveness of meal boxes and doggy-bag as effective tools to obtain a responsible and optimal food management. The results will be presented for selected subnational contexts in Italy by using machine learning classification algorithms.  The paper will be presented by Mengting Yu (University of Tuscia and Luibao Limited - Managing director – HK).

The fourth paper “Optimizing food management in school canteens: evidence from Sweden” by Mattias Eriksson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden), Luca Secondi (University of Tuscia, Italy), Stefano Marchetti (University of Pisa, Italy) and Christian Malefors (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden) will focus on sustainable management of food resources in Sweden with specific reference to food produced and consumed within public service canteens with a twofold perspective. On one hand, we will aim at understanding the quality of the data that are collected at territorial level in terms of sampling and territorial coverage, thus assessing the accuracy of the information that is transmitted to official statistics offices. On the other hand, we will explore the potential of forecasting methods and algorithms to rationalize food planning and obtaining accurate predictions of food production planning in Swedish public-school canteens, therefore improving organization and management, and ultimately reducing food waste generation. The paper will be presented by Luca Secondi (University of Tuscia, Italy).

The presentation of the papers will be followed by the analysis of the discussant, Tiziana Laureti (University of Tuscia, Italy). 

SHORT BIOS OF THE PRESENTERS, DISCUSSANT AND CHAIR

Stefano Marchetti is Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Pisa. He got a PhD in Applied Statistics at the University of Florence in 2009. He participated to international (EU-projects SAMPLE, InGRID, InGRID2, MAKSWELL) projects, and participated to projects of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is member the Italian Statistical Society, the Interuniversity center for Advanced Study on Equitable and Sustainable Development “Camilo Dagum” and of the International Association of Survey Statisticians

Ilaria Benedetti is a research fellow of Economic Statistics at University of Tuscia (Italy). She participates to various international research projects, including MAKSWELL project  Comunikos project (Communicating Uncertainty in Key Official Statistics) coordinated by GOPA Luxembourg S.à.r.l. Her research interests cover various fields of statistics from applied works in income and living conditions, including poverty and well-being, consumer behaviour, purchasing power parities and spatial price indexes, new methodologies for temporal price indexes, frontier efficiency analysis, estimation of accuracy measures.

Mengting Yu graduated in 2011 from Shanghai Finance University with a Bachelor in Economics, majoring in International Economics and Trade. In 2013 she obtained a Master of Science in E-Commerce from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She held several management positions over time, focusing primarily on Food&Beverage trade and promotion in an international context. Currently she is pursuing a PhD in Economics and Statistics, and she is actively collaborating in several international projects studying food waste across the full value chain, as well as the effectiveness of technology innovations aimed to reduce it.

Luca Secondi is Associate Professor of Economic Statistics at the University of Tuscia (Viterbo). He obtained the PhD in Applied Statistics at the University of Florence. and spent periods in various international universities. He has covered roles as research consultant, expert, and member of institutional working group also for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He was responsible and member of national and international (H2020) research projects mainly focused on the definition and application of statistical methods to model and measure sustainable economic consumption and production behaviour, on sustainable food management and on the analysis of living conditions at territorial level. He has been recognized as one of the top-five experts and authors on consumer food waste (Schanes et al, 2018 - Journal of Cleaner Production).

Tiziana Laureti is a full professor of Economic Statistics and Director of the Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organizations at the University of Tuscia (Italy). She was a member of the COMSTAT which resolves upon the National Statistical Program (appointed by the Italian President of the Council of Ministers for 2015-2019), in charge of the domain of price statistics. She participates to various international research projects, including MAKSWELL project, “InnovAfrica- Innovations in Technology, Institutional and Extension Approaches towards Sustainable Agriculture and enhanced Food and Nutritional Security in Africa”. She is also involved in several international research teams related to price statistics organized by various Institutions, including the International Comparison Program of the World Bank and EU-Eurostat, C4: Price statistics, Purchasing power parities, Housing statistics. She is Elected member of the Italian Statistical Society (SIS) since 2004 and of the International Statistical Institute (ISI).

Luigi Biggeri is emeritus professor of Economic Statistics at University of Florence (Italy) and past president of the Italian Statistical Society (SIS), ISTAT and IASS. He is member of the Interuniversity Tuscany center “Camilo Dagum”, and elected member of ISI since 1980.

 MAIN REFERENCES 

1. Beacom, E., Furey, S., Hollywood, L., & Humphreys, P. (2020). Investigating food insecurity measurement globally to inform practice locally: a rapid evidence review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, pp. 1–21.
2. Beacom, E., Furey, S., Hollywood, L., & Humphreys, P. (2022). Food Insecurity Measurement: Stakeholder Comparisons of the EU-SILC and HFSSM Indicators and Considerations Towards the Usefulness of a Headline Indicator. Social Indicators Research, 1-21.
3. Campiglio, L., & Rovati, G. (2009). Il paradosso della scarsità nell'abbondanza: il caso della povertà alimentare. Milano: Guerini and Associati
4. FAO (2014) Food Wastage Footprint: the Hidden Costs Unveiling the full environmental and social costs of food wastage, Report 9th FAO Regional Conference for Europe, Bucharest Romania.
5. Gustavsson, J., Cederberg, C., Sonesson, U., (2011). Global Food Losses and Food Waste. Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) Gothenburg, Sweden.
6. Hossain, M. B., Long, M. A., & Stretesky, P. B. (2021). Welfare State Spending, Income Inequality and Food Insecurity in Affluent Nations: A Cross-National Examination of OECD Countries. Sustainability, 13(1), 324.
7. Marchetti, S., Secondi, L. (2022) The Economic Perspective of Food Poverty and (In) security: An Analytical Approach to Measuring and Estimation in Italy. Social indicators research, 1-26.
8. Penne, T., & Goedemé, T. (2021). Can low-income households afford a healthy diet? Insufficient income as a driver of food insecurity in Europe. Food Policy, 99, 101978.
9. Secondi, L., Principato, L., & Laureti, T. (2015). Household food waste behaviour in EU-27 countries: A multilevel analysis. Food Policy, 56, 25–40.
10. Stringer, R. (2016). Food security global overview. Food Poverty and Insecurity: International Food Ine- qualities, pp. 11–18.
11. UN. (2020). End poverty in all its forms everywhere, United Nations SDG1 No Poverty, available at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/E_Infographic_01.pdf
12. UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Food Waste Index Report 2021. Nairobi
13. World Bank. (2021). COVID-19 to Add as Many as 150 Million Extreme Poor by 2021, Press Release no: 2021/024/DEC-GPV, available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/ covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021
14. Zace,D., DiPietro,M.L.,Reali,L.,DeWaure,C.,Ricciardi,W.Prevalence,socio-economic predictors and health correlates of food insecurity among Italian children-findings from a cross-sectional study. Food Security, 13(1), 13-24. (2021)

The session “Food access, poverty and food waste: new facets, statistical sources and analysis towards a sustainable management” might be of interest to many WSC attendees, including those working with official statistics - because access to food and its responsible management and consumption represent more than one objective and target of the SDGs Agenda which has served as a call to action for world nations to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure economic, social, and environmental sustainability by 2030 - as well as those working with survey statistics - since  survey statisticians can greatly contribute to refine and improve the process of data collection, availability and representativeness, which are essential to have a clear and accurate monitoring of the two phenomena, also at sub-nationality level - and also those researchers working on experimental sources of statistical data, policy advisors and practitioners. However, despite positive signs such as reducing relative income inequalities in some countries and assigning preferential trade status to lower-income countries, inequalities still exist.
In this framework, measuring access to basic needs, also using official statistics, allows tracking the ability of households or individuals to access food, which is one of the most important aspects of poverty to assess inequalities, thus linking poverty with health and social outcomes.  Poverty and food insecurity may seem to refer exclusively to developing countries, but in fact it is a phenomenon that is also present in developed and rich countries (Hossain et al., 2021; Zaçe et al., 2021), including Europe (Beacom et al., 2020; Penne & Goedemé, 2021, Secondi and Marchetti, 2022) even before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, food waste represents a surplus of food production that generates approximately 2.6 trillion USD per year, including 700 billion USD in environmental costs and 900 billion USD in social costs (FAO, 2014) and therefore succeeding in reducing food waste offers multifaceted benefits for people and the planet, improving food security, addressing climate change, saving money, and reducing pressures on land, water, biodiversity and waste management systems (UNEP, 2021). 
For these reasons, it is necessary to have as clear and detailed a picture as possible of these phenomena and through the use of official statistics (Secondi and Marchetti, 2022)  as well as exploring the potential of existing sample surveys on household income and consumption expenditure (Beacom, 2022) once the dimensions of the problem have been outlined and constant monitoring framed, it will be possible to identify tools that - also through digitalisation - can enable effective and sustainable food management, by avoiding waste and reallocating the necessary resources, saving nutritious food to be redistributed to those in need, helping to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. 
Therefore, the presentation of the above-mentioned contributions will allow for a more in-depth discussion on the methods and tools to be used to monitor these phenomena.

Organiser: PROF. EM. Luigi Biggeri 

Chair: PROF. EM. Luigi Biggeri 

Speaker: Mengting Yu 

Speaker: Prof. Stefano Marchetti 

Speaker: Dr Ilaria Benedetti 

Speaker: Prof. Luca Secondi 

Discussant: Prof. Tiziana Laureti