UNEP: Over 930 M tons of food wasted in 2019

More than 930 million tons of food sold in 2019 landed in waste bins, according to a United Nations research.

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) and partner organization WRAP said the Food Waste Index Report 2021 showed that among food wasted in homes, restaurants and shops, 17 percent was dumped.

Some food was also lost on farms and in supply chains, indicating that overall a third of food was never eaten, the report said.

Although food waste had been thought of as a problem affecting mostly rich countries, the report found levels of waste surprisingly similar in all nations, although data was scarce in the poorest countries.

The study revealed that households discarded 11 percent of food at the consumption stage of the supply chain, while food services and retail outlets wasted five and two percent, respectively.

This has substantial environmental, social and economic impacts, according to the report, which points out that eight to ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with unconsumed food.

“Reducing food waste would cut greenhouse gas emissions, slow the destruction of nature through land conversion and pollution, enhance the availability of food and thus reduce hunger and save money at a time of global recession,” said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen.

In 2019, some 690 million people were impacted by hunger while three billion were unable to afford a healthy diet.

Against that backdrop and with COVID-19 threatening to exacerbate these numbers, the study urged consumers not to waste food at home. It also pushes for food waste to be included in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) plans through which countries commit to increasingly ambitious climate actions in the Paris Agreement.

Meanwhile, target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to halve per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels and minimize food losses along production and supply chains.

“The UN Food Systems Summit this year will provide an opportunity to launch bold new actions to tackle food waste globally,” Andersen said.

Of the growing number of countries measuring food waste, 14 have collected household data in a way that is compatible with the Food Waste Index, while a further 38 countries use methods similar to the SDG 12.3 compatible estimate.