19% of food wasted despite chronic hunger, U.N. says
Report looks into progress on reducing a problem that also affects environment.
NAIROBI — The world wasted an estimated 19% of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to a new United Nations report.
The Food Waste Index Report, published Wednesday by the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP, tracks countries’ progress toward halving food waste by 2030.
The U.N. said the number of countries reporting for the index nearly doubled from the first report in 2021. That report estimated that 17% of food produced globally in 2019, or 1.03 billion tons, was wasted, but authors warned against direct comparisons due to a lack of data from many countries.
The report is co-written by staff at UNEP and the international charity Waste and Resources Action Program, or WRAP.
Researchers analyzed countries’ data on households, food service and retailers. They found that each person wastes about 174 pounds of food annually, equal to at least 1 billion meals worldwide daily.
Most of the waste — 60% — came in households. About 28% came from food service or restaurants, with about 12% from retailers.
“It is a travesty,” said coauthor Clementine O’Connor, UNEP’s point person on food waste. “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 as 783 million people around the world face chronic hunger and many places face deepening food crises. The Israel-Hamas war and violence in Haiti have worsened the crisis: Experts say famine is imminent in northern Gaza and approaching in Haiti.
Food waste is also a global concern due to the environmental toll of food production, including the land and water required to raise crops and animals and the greenhouse gas emissions produced — including methane, which has accounted for about 30% of global warming since preindustrial times.
Food loss and waste generate 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Fadila Jumare, a Nigeriabased project associate at Busara Center for Behavioral Economics who has studied food waste prevention, 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, said the index is important to tackling food waste.
“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 awareness of food waste in low- and middle-income countries. The authors said it may fall to wealthier nations to lead in international cooperation and policy development to reduce the waste.
Many governments, regional and industry groups are using public-private partnerships to reduce food waste and its contributions to climate and water stress, the report said, pointing to collaborations in which businesses in the food supply chain commit to measuring their waste.
The report said food redistribution — including donating surplus food to charities — is significant in tackling food waste among retailers.
One group doing that is Food Banking Kenya, a nonprofit that redistributes surplus food from farms, markets, supermarkets and packing houses to schoolchildren and vulnerable populations. Food waste is a growing concern in Kenya, where about 4.9 million tons are 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 noted surprisingly small differences in per capita household food waste between high-income and lower-income countries.
Richard Swannel, a coauthor and director of Impact Growth at WRAP, said that shows food waste “is not a rich-world problem. It’s a global problem.”
“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.