Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Challenges, risks and costs of food sharing. Insights from a systematic literature review

Sadovska, Vera LU ; Voytenko Palgan, Yuliya LU and Mont, Oksana LU (2026) In Journal of Cleaner Production 538.
Abstract
Current food systems are unsustainable, exacerbating environmental and socio-economic challenges. With 80 % of food consumed in cities, transforming urban food systems is vital. Urban food sharing initiatives (FSIs), which involve collective acts of growing, cooking, eating, and redistributing food, offer a promising alternative in sustainable urban transformations. However, FSIs often struggle to develop and scale. Academic literature has not adequately examined the factors hindering FSIs' establishment, operation, and scaling up. This study fills this gap through a systematic literature review of 55 articles, providing a comprehensive analysis of the challenges, risks, and costs faced by FSIs. It identifies six categories of challenges... (More)
Current food systems are unsustainable, exacerbating environmental and socio-economic challenges. With 80 % of food consumed in cities, transforming urban food systems is vital. Urban food sharing initiatives (FSIs), which involve collective acts of growing, cooking, eating, and redistributing food, offer a promising alternative in sustainable urban transformations. However, FSIs often struggle to develop and scale. Academic literature has not adequately examined the factors hindering FSIs' establishment, operation, and scaling up. This study fills this gap through a systematic literature review of 55 articles, providing a comprehensive analysis of the challenges, risks, and costs faced by FSIs. It identifies six categories of challenges and risks each, as well as seven categories of costs. The study proposes nine mitigation strategies to address these issues and emphasises the need for a more detailed breakdown of costs and investments across different phases of FSI development. Additionally, it highlights the importance of support from governments, policymakers, health authorities, retailers, and charity organisations. The transformative potential of FSIs in addressing inefficiencies in current food systems is also underscored, alongside the need for a deeper understanding of the multi-dimensional challenges they face. The findings are particularly valuable for urban FSIs seeking to develop their practices, build capacity, and contribute to more resilient and sustainable urban food systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Food sharing, urban food systems, Food commons, challenges, risks, costs, investments
in
Journal of Cleaner Production
volume
538
article number
147292
publisher
Elsevier
ISSN
0959-6526
DOI
10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.147292
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fba1a911-a99d-43e6-a183-87008376fec2
date added to LUP
2025-12-18 17:59:33
date last changed
2025-12-19 08:04:51
@article{fba1a911-a99d-43e6-a183-87008376fec2,
  abstract     = {{Current food systems are unsustainable, exacerbating environmental and socio-economic challenges. With 80 % of food consumed in cities, transforming urban food systems is vital. Urban food sharing initiatives (FSIs), which involve collective acts of growing, cooking, eating, and redistributing food, offer a promising alternative in sustainable urban transformations. However, FSIs often struggle to develop and scale. Academic literature has not adequately examined the factors hindering FSIs' establishment, operation, and scaling up. This study fills this gap through a systematic literature review of 55 articles, providing a comprehensive analysis of the challenges, risks, and costs faced by FSIs. It identifies six categories of challenges and risks each, as well as seven categories of costs. The study proposes nine mitigation strategies to address these issues and emphasises the need for a more detailed breakdown of costs and investments across different phases of FSI development. Additionally, it highlights the importance of support from governments, policymakers, health authorities, retailers, and charity organisations. The transformative potential of FSIs in addressing inefficiencies in current food systems is also underscored, alongside the need for a deeper understanding of the multi-dimensional challenges they face. The findings are particularly valuable for urban FSIs seeking to develop their practices, build capacity, and contribute to more resilient and sustainable urban food systems.}},
  author       = {{Sadovska, Vera and Voytenko Palgan, Yuliya and Mont, Oksana}},
  issn         = {{0959-6526}},
  keywords     = {{Food sharing; urban food systems; Food commons; challenges; risks; costs; investments}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cleaner Production}},
  title        = {{Challenges, risks and costs of food sharing. Insights from a systematic literature review}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.147292}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.147292}},
  volume       = {{538}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}