783 million people face chronic hunger. Yet the world wastes 19 per cent of its food: UN

A recent United Nations analysis estimates that in 2022, the globe lost 1.05 billion metric tons, or 19% of the food produced worldwide.

The Food Waste Index Report, released on Wednesday by the UN Environment Programme, monitors nations’ progress toward halving food waste by 2030.

According to the UN, since the index’s initial release in 2021, the number of nations participating has almost doubled. According to the 2021 research, 931 million metric tons (1.03 billion tons), or 17% of the food produced globally in 2019, went to waste. However, the authors cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from these figures because there is insufficient data from many different nations.

UNEP and the international charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) co-authored the paper.

Researchers examined national data on food service, retailers, and homes. They discovered that the average person throws away over 79 kg (or 174 pounds) of food a year, which equates to at least 1 billion meals wasted every day globally.

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Sixty percent of the waste originated in homes. Restaurants and food service accounted for around 28% of the total, with merchants accounting for about 12%.

“It is a travesty,” said co-author Clementine O’Connor, the focal point for food waste at UNEP. “It doesn’t make any sense, and it is a complicated problem, but through collaboration and systemic action, it is one that can be tackled.”

The report comes at a time when 783 million people around the world face chronic hunger and many places facing deepening food crises. The Israel-Hamas war and violence in Haiti have worsened the crisis, with experts saying that famine is imminent in northern Gaza and approaching in Haiti.

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Food waste is also a global concern because of the environmental toll of production, including the land and water required to raise crops and animals and the greenhouse gas emissions it produces, including methane, a powerful gas that has accounted for about 30 per cent of global warming since pre-industrial times.

Food loss and waste generates 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If it were a country, it would rank third after China and the US.

Fadila Jumare, a Nigeria-based project associate at Busara Center for Behavioral Economics who has studied prevention of food waste in Kenya and Nigeria, said the problem further disadvantages many people who are already food insecure and cannot afford healthy diets.

“For humanity, food waste means that less food is available to the poorest population,” said Jumare, who wasn’t involved in the report.

Brian Roe, a food waste researcher at Ohio State University who wasn’t involved with the report, said the index is important to tackling food waste.

“The key takeaway is that reducing the amount of food that is wasted is an avenue that can lead to many desirable outcomes — resource conservation, fewer environmental damages, greater food security, and more land for uses other than as landfills and food production,” said Roe, who wasn’t involved in the report.

The report showed notable growth in coverage of food waste in low- and middle-income countries, the authors said. But it may fall to wealthier nations to lead in international cooperation and policy development to reduce food waste, they said.

The report said many governments, regional and industry groups are using public-private partnerships to reduce food waste and its contributions to climate and water stress. Governments and municipalities collaborate with businesses in the food supply chain, whereby businesses commit to measure food waste.

The report said food redistribution — including donating surplus food to food banks and charities — is significant in tackling food waste among retailers.

One group doing that is Food Banking Kenya, a nonprofit that gets surplus food from farms, markets, supermarkets and packing houses and redistributes it to schoolchildren and vulnerable populations. Food waste is an increasing concern in Kenya, where an estimated 4.45 million metric tons (about 4.9 million tons) of food is wasted every year.

“We positively impact the society by providing nutritious food and also positively impact the environment by reducing the emission of harmful gases,” said John Mukuhi, the group’s co-founder and executive director.

The report’s authors said they found that the differences in per capita household food waste between high-income and lower-income countries were surprisingly small.

Richard Swannel, a co-author and director of Impact Growth at WRAP, said that shows food waste “is not a rich world problem. It’s a global problem.”

“The data is really clear on this point: that here is a problem right around the world and one that we could all tackle tomorrow to save ourselves money and reduce environmental impact," he said.

(With agency inputs)