Each and every year, around the world, 1.3 billion tons of still edible food is discarded and only 43% of all production grown (for the production of edible human food) is actually made available for the end consumer.

The main causes of one of the most striking paradoxes that characterize food production and consumption reside in the growing urbanization, in the increasing average incomes, in the changes to the composition of our diet, in the limits imposed by food quality and safety standards and in the dynamics of the marketplace.

While on the one hand losses of food along the food chain are physiological, on the other hand, the problem seems to be aggravated by a series of avoidable macro causes and individual bad eating habits. The search for a way to optimize food production and consumption is a prerequisite to environmental sustainability and social equity and a challengewhich involves every single one of us.