Previous studies of food losses and waste have often been confounded by lack of transparency about methods used to estimate losses and waste, and by not equalizing quantities of food losses and waste in terms of human edible calories and protein. Instead they often report losses in fresh weight, which in developed countries heavily biases the results towards perishable foods that contain lots of moisture (e.g. fruits, vegetables, liquids, etc) but relatively sparse caloric content. So, please in the current study provide clarity on methods used to estimate losses and waste, and also please focus on the major food crops that provide more than 80% of human caloric intake, including: rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, potato, groundnut, common bean, cowpea, chickpea, and lentils.
Without such clarity and focus, studies of the food waste and food losses are not very relevant to concerns about global, national and regional food security issues.
Kenneth Cassman