VILNIUS TECH Library invites you to follow the published new dissertations. The dissertation „A framework for assessing food loss and waste along the food supply chain: the case of Lithuania“ prepared at VILNIUS TECH by Ovidija Eičaitė. The dissertation was prepared in 2025–2026. Scientific consultant – Dr Tomas Baležentis.
The dissertation was defended at the public meeting of the Dissertation Defence Council of the Scientific Field of Economics in the Aula Doctoralis Meeting Hall of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University at 10 a.m. on 11 June 2026.
Food loss and waste (FLW) represents a global challenge with serious environmental, economic, and social implications. It contributes to inefficient use of resources, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and financial losses across the food supply chain (FSC), while also undermining efforts to achieve food security. To address this issue, the United Nations (UN) set Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which aims to halve food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030 and reduce food loss in production and supply chains. Achieving this goal requires a comprehensive assessment of FLW and systematic data collection across all stages of the FSC. This dissertation develops and applies a framework for assessing FLW across the key stages of the Lithuanian FSC. The framework clearly defines FLW, determines the scope of the assessment, and establishes a methodological approach for measuring and analysing FLW based on primary data collection using questionnaire-based surveys in primary production, the food industry, and retail trade, as well as food waste diaries in households. The application of the developed framework delivers the first comprehensive FLW estimates for primary production, the food industry, and households in Lithuania, while also providing more precise food waste estimates for retail trade than previously available. The results show that estimates of food loss in primary production vary substantially across products, ranging from 0.1% for milk to 20.1% for beets. Environmental factors and stringent consumer or buyer standards are the main contributors to crop losses, while diseases represent the main cause of livestock losses. The food industry generates an estimated 10.9 thousand tonnes of edible food loss annually, corresponding to approximately 4 kg per capita, mainly due to inefficiencies in processing operations and product non-compliance with commercial standards. Retail trade generates 36.4 thousand tonnes of food waste each year, equivalent to about 13 kg per capita, largely driven by product expiration and spoilage. Household food waste averages 74.5 kg of edible food per capita per year, with common causes including spoilage, over-preparation, and over-serving. The estimates generated in this research establish a baseline for FLW across the key stages of the Lithuanian FSC, enabling monitoring of changes and supporting more refined and comparable assessments over time. They also provide an empirical basis for formulating and evaluating measures aimed at reducing FLW.
Doctoral dissertation readers can search via VILNIUS TECH Virtual Library.
