March 17, 2025

CREDA’s Key Contributions to BREADCRUMB: Advancing Research on Food Marketing Standards and Food Waste

As part of the BREADCRUMB project, CREDA has been actively engaged in groundbreaking research on Food Marketing Standards (FMS) and their impact on food waste (FW). Their work spans across multiple work packages, focusing on hypothesis development, case study analysis, and economic modeling. Below, we highlight CREDA’s recent progress and contributions.

Case Study Analysis in WP2: Understanding Food Marketing Standards in the Fish Supply Chain

A major milestone achieved by CREDA in WP2 has been the in-depth analysis of data from the Fish Case Study. Their efforts included data cleaning, interpretation, and analysis, which have provided valuable insights into the role of FMS within the wild-caught fish supply chain—from fishermen to food service and retail.

Key findings from this study include:

  • Identification of 18 FMS in the Fish Case Study, of which 56% are private standards.
  • Many private standards build upon mandatory public standards but introduce stricter regulations, aiming to improve food supply chain (FSC) efficiency and economic profitability while reducing rejection rates.
  • Public standards primarily focus on food safety and sustainable exploitation of natural resources.
  • The study also examined food pathways for non-compliant products, revealing that in the fresh fish market, safety concerns, short shelf-life, and logistical barriers make revalorization difficult. As a result, non-compliant products often become food waste, ending up in organic disposal or pharmaceutical uses.
  • Out of the 18 identified FMS, 8 contributed to food waste generation, while 10 played a role in waste prevention.

In addition to these findings, CREDA contributed to ensuring the quality of Deliverable 2.5 by conducting a thorough review in collaboration with coordinator ILVO.

Economic Modeling in WP3: The BREADCRUMB Model

Over the past months, CREDA has been instrumental in developing the BREADCRUMB economic model, which explores how FMS influence food waste. This model integrates principles of grading, minimum quality standards, and private marketing standards, representing key actors in the food supply chain: farmers, intermediaries, and consumers.

Key Aspects of the Model

  • The model is based on vertically differentiated products, where a low-quality version meets public minimum quality standards (MQS) and a high-quality version exceeds this threshold due to stricter marketing standards.
  • It assumes a competitive farm sector, where farmers choose product quality and quantities.
  • The marketing sector is also competitive, with two retailer groups handling different product qualities and engaging in price competition.
  • Consumer demand is structured using the Mussa & Rosen (1978) framework, allowing the study of consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP).

Food Waste and Market Dynamics

The model assesses how changes in the stringency of FMS influence key economic variables, including food waste, pricing, and profitability. A major insight is the role of market coverage in food waste:

  • In a covered market, every consumer purchases one of the two products.
  • In an uncovered market, low-WTP consumers refrain from purchasing, leading to food waste if supply exceeds demand.

When FMS increase product price, low-quality products may become unmarketable, leading to greater waste. These insights provide a theoretical basis for understanding how regulatory policies and market-driven quality differentiation impact food supply chain efficiency.

Currently, CREDA is refining the economic model based on reviewer feedback, ensuring its robustness and applicability to real-world scenarios.

Next Steps

CREDA’s work is crucial for BREADCRUMB’s mission to balance food marketing standards while reducing food waste. Moving forward, their research will continue to provide data-driven insights, shaping policy recommendations and supporting sustainable food supply chain solutions.

Stay tuned for more updates on CREDA’s work and other BREADCRUMB initiatives!