Context

Recently, The Food Waste Index Report 2024 by the UN Environment Programme was released ahead of the International Day of Zero Waste (March 30).

UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024

• The Food Waste Index monitors the global and national generation of food waste and inedible parts. 
  • It focuses on waste occurring at the retail and consumer levels, including households and food services.
• This report was a joint study which was  authored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), a U.K.-based non-profit organization. 

What is Food Waste/Loss?

• Food Waste: This term refers to food and its associated inedible parts that are removed from the human food supply chain. 
  • In simpler words, it’s the food that gets thrown away.
• Food Loss: food loss includes all the edible parts of crops and livestock that exit the production or supply chain before reaching the retail level. 
  • This includes losses occurring after harvest or slaughter.

Key Findings of Food Waste Index Report 2024

• Food Waste a Global Problem: 

  • The Food Waste Index Report 2024 shows that food waste isn’t just a problem in rich countries, as average levels of household food waste are similar across high-income, upper-middle, and lower-middle-income countries. 
    • Small Difference: Despite income differences, households waste only about 7 kilograms of food per person, on average, regardless of their wealth.
    • Regional Trends: Rural areas generally waste less food than urban areas due to better diversion of food scraps to pets, livestock, and home composting.
    • Hot Nation trend: Food wastage per capita in households is high in hotter countries due to high consumption of perishable goods with inedible parts. 
      • Lack of cold chain storage is a major reason behind this. 

• Magnitude of Food Waste: 

  • Over one billion meals were wasted daily in 2022 globally, despite 783 million people experiencing hunger and widespread food insecurity.
    • Quantification of Food Waste: In 2022, approximately 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste were generated, equating to 132 kilograms per capita and nearly one-fifth of all available food.

• Distribution of Food Waste: 

• • The majority of food waste, accounting for 60%, happened within households, while food services contributed to 28%, and retail accounted for 12%.

• Lack of Data Infrastructure: 

  • The Food Waste Index Report 2024 highlighted the issue of lack of data infrastructure for tracking and monitoring food waste, especially in low- and middle-income countries, to meet Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 of halving food waste by 2030, particularly in retail and food services.”
    • Global  Current Situation;  As of now, only four countries in the G-20 group (Australia, Japan, U.K., U.S.) along with the European Union have food waste estimates that are suitable for tracking progress towards the goals set for the year 2030.

• Environmental Impact: 

• • Food loss and waste contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, with an estimated economic toll of $1 trillion.

• Limited Policy Integration: 

  • Only 21 countries have included measures to reduce food loss and waste into their climate plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as of 2022.
    • Urgent Call for Action: The report urges governments to step up their efforts by integrating food waste reduction into their climate plans.