**1. Introduction**

Food waste is a huge global environmental problem creating about 10 percent of the annual carbon dioxide emissions [1]. Avoidance and reduction of food waste should be prioritised to reduce the associated environmental, economic and social burdens [2–4]. Food retailers have an important role to play in efforts to implement reduction measures for food waste due to their central position in the food system [5,6], since they can influence both upstream suppliers and downstream consumers [7,8]. Studies have quantified food waste and suggested reduction measures in the entire food supply chain [9–11], mapped and recommended improved routines for recording retail food waste [10], and mapped and suggested preventive measures on a general retail level [11].

In a grocery store, the fresh fruit and vegetables (FV) department is where a large part of the food waste within the store occurs [12–17]. The waste quotas for FV range from 3 to 9% [12–16]. Additionally, the FV department has a special position, as many customers tend to choose a retail store based on their perception and experience of the department [18]. Therefore, management and maintenance of the FV department is important for many stores and retail chains. Nevertheless, managing an FV department is difficult and complex, as many of the products are perishable with a limited shelf-life, have sensitive logistical characteristics, and involve erratic demand patterns [19]. Investigations of retail store operations in relation to food waste carried out through interviews of store managers and managers at regional and headquarter levels have shown that the absence of proper work routines has a negative effect on food waste [19–23]. The employees are often portrayed

**Citation:** Mattsson, L.; Williams, H. Avoidance of Supermarket Food Waste—Employees' Perspective on Causes and Measures to Reduce Fruit and Vegetables Waste. *Sustainability* **2022**, *14*, 10031. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su141610031

Academic Editors: Fred Amofa Yamoah and David Eshun Yawson

Received: 21 July 2022 Accepted: 11 August 2022 Published: 13 August 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

as a negative factor in this regard, for instance, due to lack of training, knowledge and commitment, and incorrect handling [14,24,25]. However, a cost benefit analysis has shown that it can be cost-effective to spend more personnel time on waste management activities to accomplish waste reduction [26], and retail staff are considered to be a suitable group of informants for further examining causes of food waste [20]. Extant literature on food waste from the perspective of frontline employees is limited, and to the best of the knowledge of the authors of this paper, thus far, no research has been carried out to explore the contributions employees can make to the reduction of food waste. Previous studies have focused on the perspective of managers and there is a scarcity of research that draws attention to the knowledge and approach of employees, and how food waste is actually managed in their day-to-day operations. Since employees and their perspectives have been overlooked, some important aspects may not have been covered, and consequently, focusing on frontline employees will provide additional insights.

General causes of food waste at a retail level have been addressed in the literature [11,15,27,28], including appearance and shape, lack of coordination, lack of waste measurement, inadequate demand forecasting, and customers' behaviour and demands. Inadequate packaging has also been identified as a cause of food waste, including damage during transportation, improper handling, and confusion regarding labelling of dates [29,30]. Within meat and dairy categories, organic products have a higher percentage waste vis-àvis their conventional counterparts, and low turnover, short shelf-life and large wholesale packaging size were identified as the main reasons [31]. Many studies have examined causes of food waste in stores on an aggregated level [24], but nonetheless, general descriptions of causes are not necessarily applicable to all departments within a store and there is a paucity of specific knowledge about what is valid in each department. Furthermore, supplementary in-depth information on causes for different products and descriptions of the impact on food waste of different packaging solutions are absent [25].

Food waste at retail store level is a multifaceted research area with a multiplicity of influencing factors [24,32]. To gain a better understanding of the complexities involved in the occurrence and management of retail food waste, both qualitative and quantitative sources of data are needed, and the combination of these different data sources is often lacking in previous research [24,25]. There is also a need for empirical work with primary data collection, as well as more in-depth analyses of food waste at the retail level [33,34]. In this paper, a mixed methods approach is adopted, the perspectives of frontline employees are gleaned and first-hand data on food waste are analysed. This research aims to: (1) examine and categorise causes of and measures to reduce food waste from the perspective of frontline employees; (2) collect, compile and calculate the amount of food waste and waste quota for all FV categories, and create a top list with the products that cause 80% of the retail FV waste; (3) compile and calculate the amounts of food waste for both packaged and unpackaged products as well as for organic and conventional products on the top list; (4) use both quantitative and qualitative data to identify and explain product-specific causes of FV waste.

The paper makes two original contributions to the research literature on retail food waste. First, the findings cover the perspectives of the frontline employees and highlight the importance of their knowledge and practices since they prevent and reduce food waste on a daily basis. Second, the paper contributes to research literature by showing the productspecific differences and that different practices should be adapted for different products. The findings provide a better understanding of general and product-specific causes of food waste, and can thus support the planning and implementation of effective waste reduction strategies. Reduction of food waste at supermarkets saves resources and obviates financial losses, and is in accordance with the first and second steps of EU waste hierarchy [35]. Additionally, the findings can support food retailers' work in addressing the UN Agenda 2030 SDGs [36] and the EU Action Plan for circular economy [37].
