Food loss is falling, but resources are still being lost
Norwegian food retailers have made substantial progress. According to the NORSUS fact sheet Faktaark om matsvinn i dagligvarehandelen 2024, food loss decreased from 77,200 tonnes in 2015 to 43,600 tonnes in 2024, corresponding to a climate footprint reduction of about 97,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents and an economic loss of NOK 1.9 billion. Even so, 43,600 tonnes of food loss were still generated, representing a considerable resource stream.
According to the same source, in 2024, fresh fruit and vegetables accounted for 42% of food loss, while bread and bakery products accounted for 34%. Together, these two categories represented more than three quarters of food loss by weight.
Food loss is already being recovered in different ways: approximately a third is used as animal feed and nearly half goes to biogas production. Another 8% goes to composting or incineration, while the treatment route for the remaining 12% is unknown.
The question is therefore not simply how to reduce food loss, but how to make better use of what remains.
What do the regulations allow?
The first part of our study examined Norwegian and European regulations covering food loss sorting, biogas and digestate, and the production of feed for food-producing animals and insects .
A key finding is that the regulations do allow greater use of plant-based food loss streams, particularly fruit, vegetables, and bread and bakery products with no meat or fish, which can be used as animal and insect feed. Insects can also be fed some non-plant-based food loss categories, such as milk and honey.
Under the waste regulations (avfallsforskriften), which were amended in 2025, supermarkets are required to sort food loss/waste at source, collect it separately and deliver it for reuse or material recovery. They must also document the quantities handled. These requirements can provide better traceability and a stronger data foundation for future circular value chains.
For biogas and fertiliser production, the regulatory framework is relatively mature, with established requirements for hygiene, quality and traceability. Feed applications are more demanding because raw materials must meet stricter requirements for safety, quality and documentation.
In other words, the regulations are not necessarily the main obstacle. The bigger challenge is making suitable food loss streams available at the right quality, quantity and form.
What does the supermarket data tell us?
To investigate the possibility of using food loss as feed, the project analysed food loss data from one Norwegian supermarket. The store’s internal system provided information on the number of wasted products, loss percentage and economic value. Product weight was then used to estimate the amount of food loss in kilograms. Because the dataset included manual registrations, missing information and some necessary assumptions, the results should be understood as estimates of patterns rather than exact quantities.
Bread and bakery products stood out.
During 2024, they registered around 1,900 wasted bread and bakery products, representing approximately 27% of all registered wasted products.
The bread and bakery category represented only around 10% of the economic food loss, while fruit and vegetables accounted for the highest economic loss, at around 29% of the total NOK 205,000. When we looked at the loss ratio in terms of total sales, bread and bakery products had a relatively low loss percentage of around 12%.
To assess the potential use as feed, the amount of bread and bakery loss was estimated. They registered 686 kg of wasted products in 2024. Removing products such as sandwiches and pizza that may contain meat or fish, reduced the amount to 639 kg – a 7% reduction. A Pareto analysis also showed that 30 of the 78 products in this category are responsible for 80% of the total amount of loss, which makes it possible to create a focused collection system.
The opportunity is real – but so are the barriers
The project found several reasons to be optimistic.
Some supermarkets already return unsold bread and bakery products to bakeries or collect them through established systems for animal feed. Loss management actors also described supermarket food loss streams as relatively stable in both quantity and quality. Digital systems for forecasting, inventory management and price reduction may additionally help identify products suitable for alternative uses earlier.
At the same time, several barriers stand in the way.
Sorting and de-packaging are major practical challenges. Many supermarkets report that removing packaging is labour-intensive, particularly for smaller stores with limited staff and storage space. Products that could theoretically be used as feed may therefore end up as ordinary food loss going to biogas treatment or incineration when they are not sorted separately.
There are also differences between supermarkets in sorting routines, available storage space, local agreements and whether systems are centrally organised. Separate collection for feed requires additional work, logistics and storage, while the financial benefit does not necessarily return to the individual supermarket.
Seasonality matters too. In the bread and bakery products data, the highest monthly loss quantity was approximately 13 times higher than the lowest. This means that any future feed value chain would need to handle substantial fluctuations while still having access to a continuous stream throughout the year.
What should happen next?
The project pointed to several priorities for further work.
First, food loss data should become easier to analyse automatically. Future systems could combine loss quantities with product ingredients and nutritional information, making it possible to assess suitability for feed and the nutritional composition of available raw material streams.
Second, the same type of mapping should be extended to other major plant-based loss streams, particularly for fruit and vegetables. Some animal-origin loss streams could also potentially be relevant for insect feed, and deserve further investigation.
Third, better technologies and systems are needed for sorting and de-packaging in grocery stores, reducing labour, costs and the risk of errors.
Finally, the report recommends developing a decision framework that combines quantity, composition, nutritional value, regulations, logistics and available treatment options. This could help determine which food loss streams should be prioritised for feed and which are better suited for biogas.
The message from our project is therefore not that all supermarket food loss should become feed. Rather: some loss streams contain valuable raw material, and we need better systems to identify, separate and use them.
Bread and bakery products provide a particularly clear example. The material is generated throughout the year, much of it is plant-based, and the data indicate a substantial theoretical feed potential.
The next challenge is turning that theoretical potential into a practical, economically viable and well-organised circular value chain.
The project Mapping food loss from Norwegian supermarkets for increased value, financed by the Research Funding for Agriculture and the Food Industry (FFL/JA), looked beyond loss reduction and investigated whether food loss could be better utilised according to the resource-use hierarchy; for example, as animal feed instead of biogas. We combined a review of regulations, analysis of food loss data from a Norwegian supermarket, and interviews with actors from the food retail and loss management sectors. Project results can be found here.
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