Track: Sustainability in Supply Chains and Operations

Abstract

Considering that 120 million people in the EU face the risk of poverty or social exclusion, while at the same time a 35% of perishable food is unnecessarily discarded at supermarkets, the redistribution of the perishable food surpluses could provide a complete and balanced diet for almost 60.000 people a day or an equivalent reduction of ~100 million € per year expenses in poverty confrontation. Moreover, the reduction of food waste through the timely donation to facilities that support socially vulnerable groups of a small amount of a food product (that most probably will end up to waste), could significantly promote a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. Under this context, the purpose of this paper is to explore inventory control policies that at a specific time instance close to the expiration date donate food when the inventory level is above a certain threshold and thus, reduce the expected amount to be disposed at the expiration date. Analytic and numerical models are employed in a single period setting to calculate optimal order quantity and threshold values that maximize the company’s profit. Numerical experimentation for a specific case discusses the conditions under which the proposed policy is feasible.