Food Waste Facts

Millions hungry as food wasted

At a time of soaring food prices which have heightened poverty and hunger in many parts of the world, a new UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report highlights the amount of food that goes down the drain yearly.

"Roughly one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally," according to the Global Food Losses and Food Waste report. This is about 1.3 billion tonnes per year, wasted throughout the supply chain, from the fields to the consumer.

In terms of food wasted by consumers on a per capita basis, the industrialised countries clocked the highest levels, with countries in Europe and North America leading the way at 95-115 kg/year compared to 6-11 kg/year for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South/Southeast Asia.

Food losses in developing countries are as high, but more than 40 per cent losses occur at post-harvest and processing levels, while in industrialised countries, more than 40pc losses happen at retail and consumer levels. Consumers in industrialised countries waste 220 million tonnes, on par with the food produced in SSA, which is 230m tonnes.

In addition to the economic cost associated with loss of earnings from food produced, lost or wasted, it also "means that amounts of the resources used in food production are used in vain (such as land, water and energy), and the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production of food lost or wasted are also emissions in vain", the report said.

These facts should wake us up to the scale of wastage, while millions suffer from hunger and malnutrition and the effects of climate change. If the amount of food wasted and lost could be reduced and channelled to those who need it, it will go a long way to addressing food insecurity.

The report looks at the losses and waste of seven groups of foods consumed by humans - cereals (wheat and rice), roots and tubers, oil crops and pulses, fruits and vegetables, meat and its products, fish and seafoods and milk.

The causes range from over-production to unsafe food and poor infrastructure and marketing channels, which may differ between industrialised and developing countries.

One important cause of waste at the consumption level in rich countries is that people can afford to waste food. Consumers in developing countries usually buy smaller amounts at a time and often just enough for the day, therefore wastage is minimal. Poverty and lesser income also limit the amount of wastage, said the report.

Food Plating In America: What A Waste :

When I first began to educate myself about water, with the help of water experts at the United Nations, I was surprised by the facts.(1) Only 3% of the water is fresh, and less then 1% accessible. 70% of human consumption of water goes to agriculture. And the American diet, biased to meat and super-sized portions, is the queen mother of food related water waste. (A kilogram of beef requires 15 times more water then a kilogram of grain food). (1) Even after writing

That’s when I opened the July, 2011 issue of National Geographic and came across an article “How To Feed A Growing Planet”. (3) It begins this way, “Here’s an uncomfortable math problem: By 2045 arth’s population will likely have swelled from seven billion to nine billion people. To fill all those stomachs…some global experts say global food production will have to double. How can we make the numbers add up?”

The first two solutions offered I’d read about:

1. Adjust diets (less meat can mean more food): ”The average hamburger requires 630 gallons (2,400 liters) of water to make, when you account for the irrigation of cattle feed crops, as well as water used in production….The average U.S. diet currently takes 1,320 gallons (4,997 liters) of water a day to produce.”

2. Increase research (follow the food chain – seed, soil, climate, disease, waste removal, non-food use of food – and address where it is compromised).

But 3? Reduce waste (“Up to half the world’s harvest disappears between field and fork.”)

Somehow that had escaped me. “65 Trillion Gallons Of Water Thrown Away With Our Food Each Year”, screamed a headline.(4)  11 trillion gallons of that was attributed to the US where Americans throw away approximately 30% of their food.(3)

Now this really felt like the Twilight Zone. Here I’ve been writing for the past decade on the scourges of obesity (which has to mean that we eat too m uch of the wrong types of food), while at the same time we are arguably the world’s greatest thrower outers of food. On the one hand we are known for “cleaning our plates”, and on the other hand for “feeding the sink disposal unit after every meal”.

A few facts (3) on the amount Americans leave and dump from their plates:

Red Meat    35% Eggs    15%

Stated in another way:

1  “A recent study in PLoS One, an open-access journal for peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, found that as much as 40 percent of all food in the United States is wasted. In New York City alone, residents waste up to 270,000 pounds of food daily.

Waste, Uncovering the Global Food Scandal

Waste strategy for England 2007

Facts on food waste, preliminary findings, June 1, 1943

Look Now, The World in Facts, Stats, and Graphics

Facts on food waste