Toward Zero-Waste Agri-Food Systems: A Review of Value Chain Innovations and Policy Interventions

Abstract

Global agri-food systems lose or waste approximately one-third of the food produced for human consumption every year, with substantial economic, environmental, and social costs. This paper presents a systematic literature review of value chain innovations and policy interventions that support the transition to zero-waste agri-food systems. Following a structured search and screening process, thirty peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2026 were analyzed and synthesized thematically. Three interconnected clusters of innovation emerged. The first, technological valorization, encompasses green extraction technologies, bio-refining, and microbial valorization of agri-food by-products. The second, retail and redistribution strategies, includes the commercialization of imperfect produce and food rescue programs. The third, policy instruments, spans date-label regulation and multi-capital sustainability frameworks. Across these clusters, the evidence shows that technological solutions remain concentrated at the laboratory scale, retail interventions can produce unintended waste-shifting effects, and policy instruments have had, at best, mixed effectiveness. The review further finds that research on zero-waste transitions is disproportionately concentrated in high-income countries, and that social equity considerations remain underrepresented relative to environmental and economic ones. This review concludes that zero-waste agri-food systems will only be achieved through integrated value chain strategies that combine technological innovation with coherent, context-specific policy packages, rather than through technology or policy applied in isolation.