The issue of food waste is a multifaceted problem with far-reaching consequences, impacting not only global hunger but also the environment and the economy. While millions face acute hunger, a significant portion of the world's food production is lost or wasted, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive solutions.
The Global Scale of Food Waste
The World Food Programme estimates that 343 million people are currently facing acute hunger across the globe. Every year, about 9 million people are reported to die from hunger, including 3.1 million children. Yet, at the same time, roughly a fifth of all food that is produced in the world is lost or wasted due to one reason or the other.
Annually, approximately 25-30% of all food produced worldwide - some 1.6 billion tons - is wasted. Households waste over 1 billion meals worth of edible food daily. In 2019, the US generated 66 million tons of wasted food in the food retail, food service, and residential sectors, which is almost 40% of the country’s entire food supply. In China, more than 35 million tonnes of food - equivalent to about 6% of the country’s total food production - are lost or wasted annually. One-third of all food produced globally by weight is lost or wasted between farm and fork - that's more than 1 billion tonnes. Converted into calories, this equates to 24% of the world’s food supply going uneaten.
Environmental Impact
Wasting food isn’t just a humanitarian or social issue - it’s also an environmental one. The food cycle doesn’t just end at our trash can. Food waste that ends up in landfills and rots produces a large amount of methane - a more powerful greenhouse gas than even CO2. The food wasted in landfills is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global emissions. Agriculture is a huge consumer of water, accounting for nearly 92% of the global water footprint. With agriculture accounting for 70 percent of the water used throughout the world, food waste also represents a significant waste of freshwater and groundwater resources. It is said that the water used to produce just the food that is not eaten each year is three times the volume of Lake Geneva in Switzerland (with a total water volume of 21 cubic miles). By throwing out one kilogram of beef, you are essentially wasting 25,000 liters of water that were used to produce that meat.
Food loss and waste generate 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions - almost five times the total emissions from the aviation sector. Emissions from food loss and waste result from the energy and inputs used to produce food that’s ultimately not consumed, as well as the methane that’s emitted when food rots in fields or landfills. Although shorter lived than carbon dioxide, methane is an especially potent greenhouse gas with over 80 times the warming power of CO2.
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Causes of Food Loss and Waste
Food loss and food waste are often talked about together, these terms encompass different issues throughout the food system. Food loss refers to loss at or near the farm and in the supply chain, for example, during harvesting, storage or transport. Food waste occurs at the retail level, in hospitality and in households. Food loss happens at the production stage mainly due to insufficient skills, natural calamities, lack of proper infrastructure, and poor practices. At times, food waste can also happen due to overproduction. Overproduction occurs when restaurants, grocery stores, and other similar establishments order more food than they need, leading to an increase in perishable foods that are wasted. On top of that, retailers tend to reject a lot of food because it doesn’t conform to their quality and aesthetic standards.
Some common drivers of food loss include inadequate technology, poor infrastructure, such as roads that flood or are hard to travel consistently, can prevent food from making it from farm to table. Lack of cold storage is another major concern for ensuring food can arrive fresh to markets. Farmers may also struggle with inadequate equipment such as old or inefficient machinery that makes it difficult to harvest all of a crop. Suboptimal packaging, how foods are packaged can make a big difference in the length of time they stay safe to eat.
Some common reasons for food waste include poor food management; examples include insufficient skills and knowledge among staff who prepare food, which can lead to unnecessary waste during cooking, and inflexible procurement requirements such as retailers only stocking perfect-looking produce or not accepting a farmer’s oversupply of crop. Food waste can also occur when retailers and food providers do not adequately forecast and plan for demand to meet supply (or vice versa). Consumer behaviors, households account for the majority of food wasted at the consumer and retail level. This often results from a lack of awareness of the scale of the issue and insufficient education about how to properly use up and store food at home.
Food Waste in Developed vs. Developing Countries
There used to be a view that food waste, which happens at the consumer level, tended to be more of a developed country problem while food loss, which can arise from issues in farming and supply chains, was a greater problem in developing countries. But recent research has shown this isn’t true. Work by the UN Environment Programme shows that food waste occurs at roughly the same level in middle-income countries as in high-income countries. Similarly, recent work by the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) concluded that food loss on farms is a problem in high-income countries as well as middle- and lower-income countries. Developed and developing countries waste or lose roughly the same amount of food every year, at 670 and 630 million tons, respectively. In less-developed countries, FLW occurs mainly in the post-harvest and processing stage, which accounts for approximately 44% of global FLW. This is caused by poor practices, technical and technological limitations, labor and financial restrictions, and lack of proper infrastructure for transportation and storage. The developed countries, including European, North American, and Oceanian countries, and the industrialized nations of Japan, South Korea, and China produce 56% of the world FLW. Of this, 40% of FLW in developed countries occurs in the consumption stage, which is driven mostly by consumer behavior, values, and attitudes.
The Economic Impact of Food Waste
Around 35% of food produced in America goes unsold or uneaten. American consumers, businesses, and farms spend $218 billion, or 1.3% of their gross domestic product, growing, processing, and disposing of food that is never eaten. A 2013 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) report was able to discern a clear pattern in food waste at the global level. The later the food is wasted along the chain, the greater its environmental impact because then we also have to take into consideration the energy and natural resources expended in processing, transporting, storing, and cooking it. Reducing consumer food waste by even 20%-25% by 2030 could save the world an estimated $120-$300 billion per year. By consuming more of what they purchase, households can reduce their overall spending on food. Eliminating avoidable food waste would save the average family in the United Kingdom more than £700 ($870) each year, while in the United States, the average family would save approximately $1,800.
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FLW is a critical concern in terms of nutritional insecurity, as it decreases the availability of food for human consumption. FLW also has serious environmental, economic, poverty, and natural resource impacts. When FW is thrown into landfills, a substantial portion of FW is converted into greenhouse gas (GHG) and methane, which has a global warming potential 25 times higher than carbon dioxide. According to Rutten [11], FLW represents dissipated investment in the agricultural sector and generates significant inefficiencies in the input aspects, such as land, labor, water, fertilizers, and energy. Several studies also showed that FLW reduction initiatives in developed countries could decrease food prices in developing countries, boost efficiency in their supply chain, and conserve resources that might be used to feed the hungry.
Food Waste Among Young Consumers
Young consumers are often described as innovative and concerned about the environment. However, their practices sometimes are not strong enough, which are described as the attitude-behavior gap and are seen in significant amounts of food waste. The objective of this study is to focus on food waste among young consumers in high-income countries and to outline the main determinants of food waste generation. Qualitative data gathered from nine focus groups in Lithuania, Finland and Denmark (2021-2022) contribute to formulating potential intervention to decrease food waste behavior within this segment. The article provides a substantial literature review on food waste and discusses recommendations for possible interventions and further research to solve the attitude-behavior gap. The findings show four specific fields for potential solutions, related to (1) special occasions, (2) assessing food quality, (3) kitchen habits, and (4) shopping habits. Generation Z is characterized by a low tendency to cook for themselves and paired with the limited ability to either reduce or use leftovers, this appears to be one of the reasons for food waste. According to Kymäläinen et al. [5], young consumers’ food waste and unsustainable food consumption behavior stem from poorly planned or unplanned sizes of meal portions, lack of knowledge about preparing food, or unplanned events where food and meals are embedded. This is also in line with a Danish study based on quantitative research, which shows that more than 38% of food waste comes from the plate [6], and this study finds that young people’s cooking abilities in this phase of life are among several reasons for food waste. Other studies highlight young people’s lack of motivation to plan dinners and point to the importance of focusing on in-store behavior to reduce food waste.
Strategies to Reduce Food Waste
To stop food waste, changes have to be brought in at every stage of the process - from farmers and food processors to supermarkets and individual customers. As a first step, priority should be given to balancing production with demand. Secondly, more effort should go into developing better food harvesting, storing, processing, and distributing processes. If oversupply happens, steps should be taken to redistribute the food or divert it to people who are in need. Large restaurants, supermarkets, retail outlets, and individual consumers can also reduce their “food footprint” by identifying where waste occurs and taking steps to tackle the same, much like the City of San Diego did in January of 2022. Consumers should also try to buy food in accordance with a meal plan so that they don’t end up wasting edible food. If the food still ends up unfit for human consumption, it can be used for feeding livestock, saving precious resources that would have otherwise been used for producing commercial feed. If the food cannot be reused at all, then it should be used in compost or, at the least, recycled.
Households can reduce food waste by focusing on smart shopping and food storage. Some strategies include writing a shopping list, planning meals so that when you go shopping you know what and how much you need, understanding the difference between use-by and best-by date labels, making sure your fridge is set to the optimal temperature, understanding how best to store different foods and making the most of your freezer for leftovers. Restaurants can reduce food waste by monitoring and managing food usage and ordering. Strategies include measuring food waste in the kitchen to understand what foods are being wasted and designing a fix, engaging staff to understand the importance of minimizing waste, avoiding super-sized portions, and focusing on a smaller range of menu offerings in order to better forecast supply ordering. Retailers can reduce food waste by improving stocking and food handling practices. Strategies include measuring the amounts and types of food being wasted to identify hotspots that can be reduced; training staff in temperature management, product handling and stock rotation; accepting less-than-perfect looking produce; and educating customers about better food management - for example, how to meal plan and understand date labels, and tips for safe food handling at home.
Food producers, farmers, ranchers and fishers can reduce food losses by improving farming practices; for example, by ensuring produce is harvested at the right maturity and using appropriate harvesting equipment to maximize yield while minimizing crop damage. They can also improve their skills or use tools to better schedule harvesting, including accessing better data on weather via new apps like Mausam (which is published by India's Ministry of Earth Sciences). And they can engage customers such as wholesale retailers to communicate implications of order changes. Packing, storage and distribution facilities can reduce food loss and waste by re-examining handling, storage and transportation to ensure adoption of best practices and reduce damage. They can also use technological interventions to optimize the transport of food, and work upstream with customers to provide planning tools and handling and storage technologies that help them reduce losses. Processors and manufacturers can reduce food loss and waste by implementing technical solutions in the supply chain. Strategies include improving training to reduce technical malfunctions and errors during processing, reengineering production processes and product design to reduce waste, using product sizes and packaging that reduce waste by consumers and standardizing date labels to reduce confusion. Governments and policymakers can reduce food loss and waste through educational programs, policies and financial incentives that support more efficient food production and distribution.
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The Role of Date Labels
According to a survey conducted by Respect Food, 63% of people do not know the difference between the “use by” and “best before” dates. Foods with “use by” dates are perishable and must be eaten before the given date. Many retailers in the UK now include storage advice on food packs (such as “Store in the fridge”) and give customers menu cards with ideas for cooking the produce or foods they purchase. Some are also removing “Best before” date labels from fruit and vegetables, which can help consumers avoid throwing away food that is still perfectly edible. Retailers are explicitly telling customers that these measures are intended to reduce waste and encouraging people to use their senses to tell if food is still good to eat.
The Importance of a Systemic Approach
Because food loss and waste happen at every stage of the supply chain, everyone has a vital role to play in addressing this issue. A systemic approach that involves households, restaurants, retailers, food producers, distributors, processors, manufacturers, governments, and policymakers is essential to achieve meaningful reductions in food waste.
The Broader Context: Diet and Food Waste
Every day in the United States, consumers throw out nearly a pound of food each, according to new research. The report also showed a link between quality of diet and food waste: the healthier a person's diet, the more food they threw in the trash. Researchers also found higher quality diets were linked to higher levels of waste. Of the 22 food groups studied, fruits and vegetables were wasted most, accounting for 39 percent of the total waste. The study authors say helping consumers understand the difference between produce that is just bruised versus produce that has truly spoiled is important to reduce food waste.