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Global trends and future prospects of food waste research: a bibliometric analysis

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Abstract

The unregulated discharge reams of food waste (FW) causes severe resource loss and environmental pollution. In the present study, a bibliometric analysis was used for research activities and tendencies of food waste from 1991 to 2015. The results indicated that the amount of FW research continually grew by the years, and the number of publications rose significantly from 2012. Bioresource Technology and Waste Management were the two most frequently published journals in the field of FW research. China took a leading position and had a high h-index (38) out of 94 countries/territories, followed by the USA and South Korea. Presently, anaerobic digestion for methane and dark fermentation for hydrogen production are the mainstream techniques in FW disposal. Lactic and ethanol fermentation from FW received more and more attention in recent years. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was an ever-increasingly popular evaluation method for FW-related research. Moreover, cluster analysis indicated microbial community structure, food security, leachate, and pathogens were also the research hotspots.

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Funding

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51578063), the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (2016YFE0127800), and Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety of the Education Ministry of China (SWMES2017-05).

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  1. Min Zhang and Ming Gao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Min Zhang, Ming Gao, Siyuan Yue, Zhen Gao, Xiaoyu Ma & Qunhui Wang

  2. Laboratory of Soil and Environmental Microbiology, Division of Systems Bioengineering, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Graduate School of Bioresources and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Min Zhang

  3. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Tianlong Zheng

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory on Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, Beijing, China

    Qunhui Wang

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  1. Min Zhang
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  3. Siyuan Yue
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Correspondence to Qunhui Wang.

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Zhang, M., Gao, M., Yue, S. et al. Global trends and future prospects of food waste research: a bibliometric analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 24600–24610 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2598-6

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