Optimal inventory control policies for avoiding food waste

We develop and employ a socially responsible inventory model that determines an optimal order quantity and an optimal time instance of donation, taking into account, expectations on the net stock levels at the end of the order cycles. The optimized results of the policy are compared to those derived from the implementation of two currently applied policies namely the non-donation policy and the naive policy which involves the donation of a fixed amount of the company’s produce. A main insight revealed through the implementation of the proposed policies in a numerical experimentation indicates that the employment of the proposed donation policy could potentially lead to significantly higher expected profits compared to the other two policies.