Determining issues affecting food waste: Case study of the South African meat processing industry

Within the manufacturing company, production planning is considered as a vital component, and it plays a crucial role in keeping the company's competitiveness in the market where the trend of competitors is increasing dramatically during the current decade. Additionally, production planning is a key player due to the high costs associated with the energy use, raw materials, and maintenance of product line. Over the current decade, the South African meat processing industry has experiencing a serious issues relating to meat supply shortage in the market. The main cause of this crisis has been largely attributed to ineffective production planning that could not meet the high demand from consumers. Consequently, this situation has negatively affected the business, the quality and throughput of the meat produced as well as the reputation of meat manufacturing industry. It is from this backdrop that this study aims to determine the issues of waste in South African food market. The red meat manufacturing industry in the province of Gauteng was used as a case study. The results revealed that supply chain networks; food policy and regulation; market infrastructure; consumer behaviour; operational capability; supply chain partnerships; Information technology; supply chain insecurity; food characteristics.