Discussing Food Waste Online: Current Trends in the Food Processing Industry and Future Directions

Food loss and waste is a recurring issue of discussion that food processing companies can no longer avoid. Society, stakeholders, and directives are demanding more and more communication on sustainability issues. However, only just under half of food processing companies stated that they provide consumer information on food waste. However, consumer information is only one way of communicating about food waste. The aim of this study is to identify key themes for relevant online communication on food waste that companies should be communicating to support the German National Strategy for the Reduction of Food Waste and to determine whether companies are already using these themes online. For this purpose, national strategy experts were asked through a questionnaire which topics were relevant according to the national strategy. The websites of 105 food processing companies were analyzed using content analysis to determine the status quo of food waste communication and assessed for relevance according to the national strategy. This paper presents five prioritized clusters of topics for relevant online communication on food waste for companies. The top priorities for communication, Cluster 1, are “Business Goals”, “Business Strategy”, “Process”, “Consumer Information”, “In-house Transparency”, and “Utilization of Remaining Materials”. The status quo shows that 43.8% of the companies provided online content regarding food waste. Through theory-driven content analysis, the three most common topics were identified in relation to food waste, namely the following: “Business Goals”, “Product and Packaging”, and “Consumer Information”. Companies communicated in line with the priority clusters. However, the frequency of topics and the way they are communicated varies widely. Only “Consumer Information” and “Business Goals” from Cluster 1 are commonly communicated. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, there was a decline in publications on food waste, and afterward, more consumer-oriented content was published rather than communicating the relevant topics. Companies are expected to have two objectives in their communication: to communicate with consumers and to be transparent about their targets, data, and utilization of food waste. The results also show differences between subsectors, the occurrence of the topics over time, and examples. The findings are aimed at policymakers, researchers, and companies as a starting point for improving the consistency and transparency of food waste communication in line with the national strategy. The results are also of international interest due to the common challenges of food waste and international food companies.