Exploring sustainable approaches to mitigate food waste and reduce environmental impact at the Ortomercato wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Milan

This research delves into the increasingly fundamental role of food redistribution in giving needy people food, mitigating waste, easing production pressures, and lessening the environmental footprint of the agri-food chain. The primary focus is on interpreting the recovery of food flows by Third Sector Associations within the Ortomercato, Italy's largest wholesale market for fruits and vegetables. Additionally, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment study was conducted to quantify the impacts associated with intercepted food surplus from waste flows. The objective is to measure the environmental effects within the context of the Milan fruit and vegetable wholesale market, developing a credit/debit-based approach encompassing quantitative evaluations of the food's origin, transport, packaging, and disposal. The results highlight the environmental impact of the entire life cycle and underline that the production of various food products is the most significant impact, accounting on average for more than 50% of the total. According to the concept of "environmental impact avoidance", a net balance approach is proposed to evaluate the net credits generated. The results demonstrate the success of food recovery, showcasing the rescue of over 136 tons of food at the market and generating carbon environmental credits equivalent to 55 tons of CO2 eq in a year. This study can be identified as the starting point for a regulatory measure to support the environmental benefits of food redistribution through third-sector channels.