ESTIMATING THE NUTRITIONAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINTS OF PERSIMMON (Diospyros kaki) POSTHARVEST LOSS: A BRAZILIAN CASE STUDY

Food waste enhances food insecurity and hunger in the world, especially in countries where inequality is high. The pandemic of COVID-19 has made the road to solving this challenge even steeper. It has been estimated that one-third of global food is lost and wasted (FLW), implying natural resources, nutritional, and energetic potential losses. Brazil has a significant loss of persimmon in the postharvest stage due to several technological factors and fruit metabolic processes. This study aims to estimate the amount of land footprint (LF), energy, carbohydrate, fiber, micronutrients, and monetary value associated with persimmon loss in Brazil from the data obtained in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The investigation involved the analysis of the domains of the supply utilization accounts of crops and livestock products, and finally, the value of agricultural production to collect the harvested area, production, loss production, and production value of persimmon in Brazil from 2014-2018. Data regarding energy, carbohydrate, fiber, and micronutrients was obtained from the 4th edition of the Brazilian Food Composition Table. The energy loss was converted into the feeding potential (FP) metric that evaluates the number of adult individuals fed with the nutritional losses. The average annual losses production, loss production value, and LF of the persimmon represent 35.4 thousand tons, R$ 36 million ($12 million), and 1673 hectares, respectively. The persimmon loss represents the wasting of 6 trillion grams of carbohydrate, 2 trillion grams of food fiber, 9 trillion milligrams of vitamin c, and 52 trillion milligrams of potassium. Furthermore, it has lost 26 trillion kcal, which can be converted into FP to feed about 35 thousand adults. It is needed to develop strategies that increase persimmon shelf life to save natural resources, nutrients, bioactive substances and minimize the impacts of its postharvest loss.