Taxonomy of circular economy practices aimed at preventing and reducing food waste in retail

Costa, Daiane de Oliveira, Sanchez Rodrigues, Vasco ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3375-3079, Nascimento, Francisco Ramon Alves do, Ruiz-Benítez, Rocío and Freires, Francisco Gaudêncio Mendonça 2026. Taxonomy of circular economy practices aimed at preventing and reducing food waste in retail. Journal of Cleaner Production 576 , 149392. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2026.149392

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Abstract

Food loss and waste (FLW) in food retail poses critical challenges at the intersection of environmental sustainability and circular economy (CE) transitions. Despite growing scholarly attention, approaches to preventing and reducing FLW remain fragmented, with uneven adoption across institutional contexts. This study develops a systematic taxonomy of CE practices and applies it in a comparative analysis of Brazil and Spain, two countries with contrasting institutional contexts for circular economy implementation. A systematic literature review identified 233 practices, which were consolidated into a taxonomy of 33 CE practices organized into five hierarchical categories based on value preservation: food surplus prevention, avoidable waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and recovery. An Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) assessed specialists' perceptions of the strategic importance and implementation of each practice. The findings indicate that, although CE practices were consistently perceived as highly important in both countries, their implementation differed substantially. Higher implementation levels in Spain were associated with a more consolidated regulatory environment, technological infrastructure, and coordinated governance, whereas wider implementation gaps in Brazil were linked to technological limitations and institutional fragmentation. This study contributes by systematizing retail-oriented CE practices into an integrated taxonomy, operationalizing the distinction between food surplus prevention and avoidable waste prevention, and showing how institutional conditions shape the adoption of CE practices. The findings provide practical guidance for retailers in prioritizing circular interventions and inform policymakers on institutional actions needed to accelerate food waste prevention and support progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0959-6526
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 September 2026
Date of Acceptance:	2 September 2026
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2026 15:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189455

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