Desperdício de alimentos em feiras livres: levantamento de perdas de frutas e hortaliças em distintas cidades do Brasil.

Abstract

The street market is one of the traditional forms of free trade of retail foods that over the years may have been replacing the purchase of items such as fruits and vegetables in supermarkets. These fairs represent a socioeconomic organization and can also be said to be an element of cultural identification, catering to the food needs of the consumer and the local community. Free trade fairs generate income for many people, but also generate food waste, considered as solid waste in municipal free trade fairs, so that this solid waste is disposed of inappropriately causing environmental impacts, causing great damage to the environment as a proliferation of pests and diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms. This work had as objective to discuss the causes that lead to the waste and, consequently, to the generation of solid residues, and also to point out alternatives so that this waste can be minimized. For this, a bibliographic review was carried out from academic and scientific publications comprising cities in four different states. During the research it was found that the causes of food waste in the fairs were practically the same from environmental factors to poor road and highway conditions, however, there are ways to minimize this waste, with good handling practices, adequate transportation , better disposal on the stands and sorting during harvesting.