REDUCING FOOD WASTE AS A BASE OF INNOVATIVE LEAN SOCIETY PHILOSOPHY

: Due to the high level of losses and food waste nowadays, the problem become global. The main causes of food loss in households are: exceeding shelf life, excessive purchases, damage and low quality, additionally excessive portions of meals, wrong food storage, the bad taste of the product, lack of idea on how to use available ingredients, as well as reckless purchases, too large packaging. Negative effects of food loss can be grouped into three areas: environmental, economic and social, which are consistent with the basic goals of sustainable development. The aim of this article is to present an original proposal for an approach to Lean Society philosophy with respect to the problem of food loss. The authors reviewed conventional and unconventional methods of food preservation, identification of available and innovative solutions in terms of reducing food loss and indicated directions and opportunities for reducing food loss on the basis of Lean Society philosophy.


Introduction
Food is the foundation of human existence and survival.The need to eat always accompanies man at every stage of his/her life and development.Food issues are very important, as indicated by their position in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.Maslow (2004) prioritised the needs and placed the need of eating in the group of physiological needs, which, if not satisfied, will predominate over all other needs and they will determine not only human survival but also his/her behaviour.Apart from food, Maslow (2004) included the need for drinking, breathing, sleeping, avoiding cold and heat or sex to physiological needs.Giving the needs of eating first degree in his hierarchy, he attributed them very important status with regard to human functioning (Forsyth & Tatar, 2004;Maslow, 1990;Miler-Zawodniak, 2012;Stelmach, 2008).Max-Neef et al. (1991) distinguished nine groups of needs, and they included food to needs of keeping alive, which are first-order needs (Table 1).
Due to high level of losses and food waste nowadays, the problem become global.This phenomenon occurs throughout the food chain, from the production process to the consumption (Marszałek, 2018).Unfortunately there is a lack of harmonised definition of food loss and with respect to this phenomenon the name food waste was applied (Sokołowski, 2020); hence, in 2012 European Parliament (EP) proposed that food loss is "food products discarded from the agri-food chain because of economic or esthetic reasons or close to expiry date, which can be still eaten and can be consumed by people and which because lack of an alternative way of use is intended for destruction and disposal, what causes negative spill-over effects taking into consideration their influence on the environment, economic costs and loss of revenue for businesses" (Resolution, 2012).
There are many sources of food loss.They vary and depend on many factors.The main factors which determine food loss are place in the agri-food chain, the type of industry or the economic situation of the country where the presented phenomenon occurs (Kwasek, 2016).It must be clearly stressed that in a globalising world, food adulteration and lack of food authenticity are very common phenomena.This has a direct influence on increasing the amount of food loss because not-authentic food (despite it being produced) is not accepted by consumers (Śmiechowska, 2013).
In the case of industrialised countries, most of the food is wasted at the stages of distribution and consumption, which means the final stages in the agri-food chain.An inverted trend is observed in developing countries where most losses appear at the initial stages of production.It is caused by a lack of advanced agricultural technologies, a lack of effective systems and transport infrastructure, as well as a lack of solutions which ensure that products can last longer.Taking into consideration the food industry, the causes of food loss are inadequate marketing strategy, inappropriate stock management, the inadequate target group of the product, and large-scale food disposal (Marszałek, 2018).The main causes of food loss in households are exceeding shelf life, excessive purchases, damage and low quality (Bilska et al., 2015), additionally excessive portions of meals, wrong food storage, the bad taste of the product, lack of idea on how to use available ingredients (Mitka, 2020) as well as reckless purchases, too large packaging (Niedek & Krajewski, 2021).
Negative effects of food loss can be grouped into three areas: environmental, economic and social, which are consistent with the basic goals of sustainable development 1 (Table 2).
This article aims to present an original proposal for an approach to Lean Society philosophy with respect to the problem of food loss.The authors reviewed conventional and unconventional methods of food preservation, identification of available and innovative solutions in terms of reducing food loss and indicated directions and opportunities for reducing food loss on the basis of Lean Society philosophy.

Legislative aspects which protect food from wastage -Polish conditions
The problem of legal issues which protect food from wastage was undertaken in many publications (e.g.Leśkiewicz, 2015;Sokołowski, 2020).
Act of 19 July 2019 on preventing food waste is an important document in Polish legislation.It implemented principles concerning dealing with food and obligations for food traders and non-governmental organisations.The aim of the act was to support charitable activities by reducing the throwing of food away and its donation to people in need.Legal obligations for traders running shops with area over 250m 2 Agreement with non-governmental organisation concerning free chargé food donation which satisfies the requirements of food law but is not for sale (particularly because of its visual defects or packages).
Conducting educational and informational campaigns in shops in terms of rational food management and reducing food waste.
Fees for food waste.
In light of this act, obligations have been imposed on traders who run a shop with the area over 250 m 2 (earlier 400 m 2 ) (Act, 2019) (Figure 1).
It must be stressed that the act imposes obligations only on distribution business operators and does not include all parts of the food chain.The act omits the issue of food donation for non-food purposes and food which is still safe for human consumption after the date of minimum durability.It must be marked that the food loss problem should be solved in a comprehensive way, and hence implemented legal instruments cannot be limited only to distribution (Sokołowski, 2020).

Conventional and unconventional methods of food preservation
Food preservation is an action whose aim is to stop the process of food spoilage ( Baryłko-Pikielna, 1995).These are also activities aimed at protecting against spoilage and delay and stopping processes which reduce food quality (Wielgosik, 2020).Very important aspect of food preservation is to extend the shelf life of food by preserving certain quality characteristics (Harasym et al., 2016).
The development of methods of food preservation corresponds with civilisation and technological progress.The necessity of food preservation is also connected with an increasing number of people on Earth who have to satisfy their needs in terms of eating.There is a huge problem due to the delivery of fresh, healthy and proper amounts of food to societies.It results from different aerodynamic conditions in different parts of the world, mainly short-term harvesting and rapid population growth in cities far away from centres of agricultural production (Molenda, 2007).
The growth of human activity has forced a greater need for food which is safe and available, allowing prepare meals in an easy way at any time and in every situation.These contributed to searching such methods of processing and preserving food products which will result in easy, fast use and preparing products (Kowalczuk, 2004).Convenience food is widely defined, but the common element which connects all definitions presented in the literature on this subject is a minimal time of meal preparation 2 (Babicz- Zielińska et al., 2010).An approach to a matter of convenience of food is connected with methods of its preservation.Evolutionarily there are three generations which refer to methods of food preservation in terms of convenience food (Table 3).Source: authors' work based on Krzysztofik et al. (2015).Krzysztofik et al. (2015).

Identification of available and innovative solutions in terms of reduction of food loss
The phenomenon of food loss is an important problem and hence American Environmental Protection Agency has developed hierarchy of prevention of food loss.Reduction of losses and wasting at their roots are priorities.Next levels are: donating food to people in need, animal feed, industrial use, composting, and at the end storage and incineration (Kołożyn-Krajewska et al., 2016) (Figure 2).Current solutions related to reduction of food loss can be placed in three groups of solutions: organisational, social and technical-technological (Table 6).According to the authors, the area of solutions, together with examples of actions, do not fully exhaust possibilities for the reduction of food loss.In the further part of the article, original proposals which enable a significant reduction of the amount of wasted food will be presented.

Food is an area of interest in the innovative Lean Society Philosophy
Presentation of the original definition of innovative philosophy, which is that Lean Society is: the philosophy of management of modern societies which steams from sustainable development principles and existing concepts of effective use of resources which was extended to the idea of lean thinking, eco-design, the real determination of actual needs by the support of government and society, as well as education of society, are starting point for deliberations (Dąbrowska et al., 2022).

Lean Society philosophy
With respect to Figure 2, recommended priorities concerning dealing with food should be extended to the following four activities (levels).These include food preservation, reduction of food loss, rational food management and Lean Society philosophy (Figure 3).Taking into consideration above mentioned conditions, there are postulated rules and example activities concerning rational food management, which in terms of the innovative concept of Lean Society, will reduce food loss (Figure 4, Table 7).Rational food management -avoiding excessive purchase and stockpiling, -reuse of safe food (freeganism), -recovery of food resources for production of animal feed.
Friendly government and law -support in donation of unsold food as gifts to charitable bodies.
Prevention -ongoing monitoring of situation and constant collection and analysis of data in order to better understanding of the causes of the problem and comprehensive solutions, -promoting education by e.g.social campaigns.
Logistics of agri-food chains -promoting cross-sectoral cooperation, -commonality of agricultural policy, -strict rules for food segregation.The objective of developing the assumption of the initial concept of Lean Society when it comes to the reduction of food loss was the concept of sustainable development and activity in terms of rational food management.However, it should be noted that the comprehensive approach of the Lean Society philosophy in terms of reduction of food loss requires additional support in three areas.There are friendly government and law, prevention and logistics of agri-food chains (Figure 5, Table 8).

Conclusions
The problem of food loss is global and should not be solved, taking into consideration only its country or origin scale.Struggle with food loss is one of the main challenges to the modern world economy.Current activities undertaken by global and European bodies are focused on the preparation of documentation and not on designing effective systematic solutions, which will unify activities aimed at implementing real practices.It must be noted that attempts to address the issue very often are initiated by individuals or social groups and sometimes are connected with a choice of particular lifestyle (freeganism, foodsharing, smart shopping).
The aim of this article was to present the original approach to Lean Society philosophy in relation to the problem of food waste.This objective was taken by: • presentation of the original definition of Lean Society philosophy, • innovative approach to systematic actions in dealing with food, taking into account systemic activities in the field of food preservation, minimising food waste, rational food management and the innovative lean society philosophy, • indication of actions which support rational food management concerning organisational, social as well as technical and technological aspects, • identification of pillars of Lean Society philosophy in terms of the reduction of food waste and, • proposal of actions reducing food waste with regard to pillars of the innovative concept of lean society about sustainable development, rational food management, friendly state and law, preventive measures and logistics of agri-food chains.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Legal obligations for traders running shops with area over 250 m 2 Source: authors' work based on Act (2019).
Figure 1.Legal obligations for traders running shops with area over 250m

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Current and recommended priorities concerning dealing with food Source: authors' work based on Kołożyn-Krajewska et al. (2016).

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. System actions aimed at dealing with food

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Rational food management according to the assumption of Lean Society Philosophy

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Pillars of Lean Society philosophy with regard to the reduction of food loss Figure 5.

Table 2 .
Negative effects of food loss

Table 3 .
Food preservation and generations of convenience food Source: authors' work based on Adamczyk (2010).
Table 4 presents conventional methods of food preservation, and Table 5 presents unconventional methods of food preservation.

Table 4 .
Conventional methods of food preservation

Table 5 .
Unconventional methods of food preservation Source: authors' work based on

Table 6 .
Available solutions in terms of reduction of food loss

Table 7 .
Supportive activities of rational food management

Table 8 .
Proposals for actions reducing food loss with respect to pillars of Lean Society Philosophy