International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction

• The United Nations observes International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) on September 29. 

• It seeks to promote awareness and collective action to reduce food loss and waste.

• Food loss and waste undermine the sustainability of our food systems. When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food — including water, land, energy, labour and capital — go to waste. 

• In addition, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. 

• Food loss and waste can also negatively impact food security and food availability, and contribute to increasing the cost of food.

• Globally, around 13.2 per cent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail, while an estimated 19 per cent of total global food production is wasted in households, in the food service and in retail all together.

• Decreasing food loss and waste is, in fact, enshrined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – within SDG 12, which seeks to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, Target 12.3 aims to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains” by 2030.

• The world’s population, currently at 8.2 billion, is expected to grow to close to 9.7 billion people by 2050. 

• Ensuring a food secure world, where current and future populations have access to sufficient nutritious food, crucially requires new ways of working, and concerted efforts to improve the sustainability and resilience of agrifood systems globally.

• Reducing food loss and waste helps to protect natural resources and biodiversity, reduce pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and maximise the use of food produced. 

• It is therefore central to securing efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, and to improving food security, nutrition and health.

• Embracing innovation and fostering circular economy approaches in agrifood systems to prevent, reduce, reuse and repurpose food loss and waste also serves to create new job opportunities, improve livelihoods and generate financial benefits for a range of stakeholders.

Food loss and waste in numbers:

• An estimated 13 per cent of food – the equivalent of 1.25 billion tonnes – was lost globally after harvest and prior to reaching retail shelves in 2021.

• An estimated 19 per cent of food — the equivalent of 1.05 billion tonnes — was wasted in households, food service and retail in 2022.

• Households waste over 1 billion meals worth of edible food every day, the equivalent of 1.3 meals every day for everyone in the world affected by hunger.

• Approximately 28.9 per cent of the global population — 2.33 billion people — were moderately or severely food insecure in 2023.

• One out of 11 people in the world faced hunger in 2023.

• Food loss and waste generate 8 to 10 per cent of global GHG emissions.