A Comprehensive Review on Food Guard

Urban food hubs are a novel operational model for surplus food redistribution, and an increasingly implemented policy instrument to mitigate synergically food waste and food insecurity. However, there is still need to assess comprehensively their sustainability impacts across the environmental, social and economic dimensions. This study focuses on Milan, a frontrunner city in the implementation of innovative food policies, where urban food hubs aim to generate positive impacts in food waste reduction and food insecurity mitigation through a neighbour-based and quick redistribution model. Methodologically, the study performs a comprehensive, multi-dimensional (environmental, social and economic) sustainability evaluation using life cycle assessment, net economic benefit calculation and social sustainability indicators evaluation. Results show that one food hub offers annual net savings of 107 t of CO₂ equivalent and generates substantial environmental benefits across different environmental dimensions. Robustness checks and sensitivity analyses are carried out considering different degrees of displacement impacting the level of substitution of redistributed products.