*2.2. Administration and Data Analysis*

The survey questionnaire was circulated to all 55 fruit and vegetable wholesalers, secondary wholesalers, and processors operating in Market City Canning Vale, Western Australia. Both a walk-in hand-out approach and online survey were carried out to obtain maximum participation. Also provided was an information letter detailing the objectives of the questionnaire and the nature of the survey. Once a week, business owners were contacted either by face-to-face meetings or by email to assist and check their progress in completing the questionnaire. After a 12-week period, which started in mid-June 2015, a total of 35 questionnaires were returned from the various wholesale businesses. Data collected in the questionnaires was classified into meaningful categories and captured using a specially designed excel spreadsheet template before applying descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage [42]. The Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical software version 21.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA, 2012) was then used to analyze the data [43]. Analysis revealed three distinct key themes: (1) fruits and vegetables received and reasons for loss generation; (2) loss reduction strategies; and (3) food loss utilization preferences. During the analysis, emergent patterns and relationships amongst the key questions were identified through a process of reduction and rearranging of the data into more manageable and comprehensible forms. Furthermore, qualitative text analysis software program Nvivo (QSR

International Pty Ltd., Doncaster, Victoria, Australia, 2012) was used to analyze open-ended question answers [44]. Participants were also requested to add their own thoughts regarding the reasons behind loss generation, loss reduction, and loss utilization approaches in the 'other section' of the questionnaire. Text analysis was also used to analyze the 'other section' of the questionnaire.
