Capturing food waste reduction practices of fresh fruit street vendors in Indonesia

Food waste has become an increasingly concerning issue. Food waste impacts environmental, economic, and social. Indonesia is ranked second in the world after Saudi Arabia in producing food waste, and the majority of food waste produced is fruit and vegetables. This study emphasizes fresh fruit compared to vegetables because there are still few previous studies that specifically discuss the occurrence of food waste. The study aims to determine the phenomenon of food waste and to trace the factors that cause food waste at fresh fruit street vendors. The research respondents involve 110 fresh fruit street vendors in Purwokerto, Indonesia. The method used is quantitative by distributing questionnaires directly, and the statistical test used is ANOVA. The results showed that demographic factors significantly affected the logistics activity of fresh fruit street vendors in food waste mitigation. The demographic factors include fruit diversity, daily turnover, and experience. Food waste mitigation approaches for local fruit should be the same with international standards to avoid damage quickly. In addition, fruit street vendors with fewer sales experience are expected to participate in training to increase their knowledge. Fruit street vendors with a small daily turnover can purpose a forecast and use transshipment system by transshipping the fruit to other street vendors. In addition, recommendations from street vendors mentioned to carry out further processing, and daily sorting to maintain fruit quality, avoid fruit from direct sunlight and rainwater exposures, and provide discounted prices on fruit sales for low-quality fruits. Further research can focus on one type of fruit to find the proper treatment for mitigating food waste at the street vendor level.