UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2024 says that globally, around 1.05 billion tonnes of food is wasted in 2022, nearly one-fifth of all the food available to its consumers.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WRAP, a non-profit organization in the US, published this report on Wednesday.
The report stated that while 1.05 billion tons of food waste was generated in 2022, around 783 million people worldwide were affected by hunger and food insecurity, affecting the global economy, fuelling climate change, nature loss, and pollution.
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UNEP’s alarming findings about food waste
The report’s main findings were released on March 27, ahead of the International Day on Zero Waste on March 30.
The report considered data from the year 2022 and highlighted the issue of global food waste. It reveals that the combined cost of food in the supply chain and the amount of wastage greatly impact the global economy, around $1 trillion.
In 2022, food waste, including inedible parts, was around 1.05 billion tonnes. This amount is around 132 kilograms per person. This represents almost 20% of all the food available to consumers.
Surprisingly, out of all the waste food generated, nearly 60% happened at the household level, while food services were responsible for 28% and retail accounted for 12%.
After 2019, this is the second report by UNEP in 2021 that considers food waste. After comparison, the results say that the global food waste per person per year has increased from 74 kilograms in 2019 to 79 kilograms in 2022. Particularly in India, it has increased from 50 kilograms per person per year to 55kilogramsg per person per year during the same period.
Since 2021, efforts to track food wastage have also increased, resulting in better data collection. The number of data points at the household level has almost doubled worldwide. However, many low- and middle-income countries still need more adequate systems to monitor progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which aims to reduce food wastage by 50% by 2030, especially in retail and food services.
Out of the G20 countries, four (Australia, Japan, the UK, the USA) and the European Union have estimates that can be used to track progress towards the 2030 goal. Canada and Saudi Arabia have suitable household estimates, while Brazil’s estimate will be available in late 2024.
India, along with China, South Africa, Indonesia, and Mexico, needs representative national food waste studies due to variations in data. The report notes that India, Indonesia, and South Korea only have “subnational estimates” regarding food waste. Argentina and Turkey have no estimates for household food wastage.
The data also shows that food wastage is not only a problem for the ‘rich countries.’ The household food waste levels vary between high-income, upper-middle-income, and lower-middle-income countries, with a difference of 7 kilograms per person. Besides this, countries with hotter climates produce more food waste per person in households. The reason could be that these countries consume more fresh foods that contain inedible parts and may not have efficient refrigeration systems.
The recent data also reveals that food loss and waste contribute to 8-10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions yearly, nearly five times the emissions produced by the aviation industry. Such food wastage leads to biodiversity loss, consuming one-third of the world’s agricultural land.
Addressing the problem: one-fifth of food is wasted
Till 2022, 21 countries included food loss and waste reduction in their climate action plans (NDCs). The revision process in 2025 holds a crucial opportunity to increase the efforts and integrate refined plans to tackle the problem.
The Report highlights that countries must establish more robust points to start this progress and measure their performance regularly. Japan and the UK have implemented policies and partnerships to deal with food wastage. They have substantially reduced 31% and 18% of their food waste.
