Households threw away the equivalent of one billion meals every day around the world in 2022, according to estimates by the UN, which today denounced “the global tragedy” of food waste.

These estimates for food that can be eaten but thrown away are at the bottom of the scale, and “the actual amount could be much higher,” according to the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) index report food waste.

“Food waste is a global tragedy. Millions of people will go hungry today around the world as food is thrown away,” said Inger Andersen, UNEP’s executive director.

“It’s just outrageous,” Richard Swannell of WRAP, which co-authored the report, told AFP.

“We could feed all the people suffering from hunger in the world — there are about 800 million — with one meal a day, just with the food that is wasted,” he points out.

Households accounted for 60% of this waste, i.e. 631 million tonnes in the world in 2022 out of a billion-plus total. Catering services (canteens, restaurants, etc.) ‘contributed’ 28% and supermarkets, butchers and grocers together 12%.

They equate to more than $1 trillion a year being unjustly lost, according to estimates.

The report, the second the UN has published on the issue, presents the most comprehensive overview of the situation to date. And the extent of the problem has become clearer as data collection has improved.

“The more we look for food waste, the more we find,” says UNEP’s Clementine O’Connor.

“Opportunity”

Much of the waste at home is linked to people buying more than they really need, misjudging portion sizes and not eating the rest, according to Richard Swannell.

Thus, consumers throw away products that are perfectly fine to eat but whose expiration date has passed.

Much food is also lost for reasons other than simple carelessness, especially in developing countries, for example due to refrigeration problems.

But contrary to popular belief, food waste is not just a “rich country problem” and can be seen all over the world.

From the business side, it now costs less to throw away food than to find a more sustainable alternative.

“It’s quicker and easier because the taxes on waste are zero or very low,” says Clementine O’Connor.

Food waste, which accounts for almost a fifth of available food, is synonymous with “environmental failure”, say the report’s authors: it causes up to 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and requires vast tracts of agricultural land to grow edible products which will never be consumed.

If it were a country, “it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States and China,” notes Richard Swannell. “And yet people don’t give it much thought.”

“We hope this report highlights the opportunity for each of us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and save money, simply by making better use of the food we already buy.”