Food loss and waste [fr]

One third of the world’s food is lost or wasted along the food chain. How can we progressively reduce this phenomenon? Answering this question is now an international commitment.

The challenge of loss and waste in the world

One third of the food produced is wasted worldwide

The latest FAO study on the subject conducted in 2011, estimates that one third of food is lost or wasted along the food chain, from production to consumption, which represents about 1.3 billion tons per year. In 2019, a study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that 913 million tons of food, or 17% of the total food available would have been thrown away in household, retail, restaurant and other food service trash. Globally, 121 kilograms of food are wasted each year at the consumer level, of which 74 kilograms are wasted in households. In addition, 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions out of a total of 24% emitted by agri-food activities worldwide would be caused by uneaten food, which shows a strong environmental impact and the importance of this issue to define more sustainable production and consumption patterns.

The total reduction of losses and wastage would make it possible to feed approximately 2 billion people according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Reducing food loss and waste is therefore essential to ensure food security and limit the ecological footprint of food systems.

Some figures to better understand and become aware of the stakes of food loss and waste (source: FAO, 2013).

• Economic impact: the direct economic consequences of food loss and waste are of the order of 750 billion dollars per year worldwide.

• Climate impact: the carbon footprint of food loss and waste is estimated at 3.3 gigatons of CO2 equivalent.

• Impact on natural resources:
- The total volume of water used each year to produce lost or wasted food is 250 km3, or about 6% of global water withdrawals.
- 1.4 billion hectares of land, or 30% of the world’s agricultural land, are used annually to produce lost or wasted food

Complex issues to manage and measure

Many factors influence the level of loss and waste in production. The measurement of these volumes comes from the fact that each stage of the chain of production, distribution and consumption includes factors that are particular to it.

Food losses

Food losses refer to situations in which agricultural or food products deteriorate before reaching the final stage of production or entering the retail channel. Losses are mainly due to financial, technical and management limitations in harvesting, storage infrastructure and conditions, packaging and marketing systems, as well as climatic conditions that favor food spoilage. The highest levels of losses are found in developing countries. They reach, on average in 2019, 14% in sub-Saharan Africa and 20.7% in South and Central Asia, against an average of 5.8% in developed countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

They mainly concern roots, tubers and oilseeds (25%), fruits and vegetables (22%) and meat and animal products (12%).

In 2019, according to FAO estimates, 14% of food is lost each year, which corresponds to an amount of 400 billion USD.

Food waste

Food waste is food that is discarded at retail or thrown away by consumers. Food waste is thought to be caused by, among other things, consumers’ lack of understanding of the meaning of dates on the product, products not meeting strict quality or appearance standards, and poor purchasing and storage practices by consumers. The main levers identified to reduce waste are largely based on consumer awareness of better purchasing practices, full value-added food, or better communication of the environmental and economic impacts of food waste.
Exact estimates of waste levels are being developed by the FAO and remain difficult to assess.

An agreed international commitment

The goal of reducing loss and waste is now enshrined in the 2030 Agenda, notably in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3: "By 2030, halve globally the amount of food waste per capita at both the distribution and consumption levels and reduce food losses throughout the production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses."
A high proportion of food is still lost along the supply chain today. The global material footprint is growing faster than population growth and economic output. Although in some countries resource efficiency is improving, this progress is being undermined by the increasing material intensity in others. There are, however, various solutions to combat food loss and waste. Agroecological practices, promoted by more and more governments, and innovations that improve food production, transportation and preservation are part of the range of possible solutions that are already partly deployed by governments and international organizations.

France’s commitment to the fight against food loss and waste

Every year in France, more than 10 million tons of food waste are produced for an estimated value of 16 billion euros.
A national study by the Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), conducted in 2016, estimates the level of food waste at 30 kg per person per year of losses and waste in the home (including 7 kg of uneaten food waste still packaged), to which must be added the losses and waste generated in collective or commercial catering.
In France, only a small percentage of all food waste and losses is transformed into compost. The practice of composting at home could reduce the burden on public waste collection services by 150 kg of household waste per household per year.

Ambitious national commitments

France has been a pioneer at the European level since 2004, when it created its first national waste prevention plan. Numerous initiatives have continued this commitment.

The National Pact to Combat Food Waste, created in 2013, is a collective commitment to "make a concrete commitment against the excesses of the society of overconsumption" and to "regain purchasing power." In its 2017-2020 plan, the Pact includes 16 measures resulting from the reflection conducted with the actors of the food chain and based on the commitment of the actors of the entire food chain. The pact sets an ambitious goal of halving waste by 2025 and is aimed at all players in the food chain.

The law of February 11, 2016 on the fight against food waste (known as the Garot Law) establishes a legal framework against waste and will, in particular, make it possible to meet the objective set by the 2013 national pact, on halving food waste by 2025. It establishes a hierarchy of actions to be implemented by each actor in the food chain: prevention and awareness of the impacts of waste, use of unsold food for human consumption, for animal feed, and then for composting for agriculture or energy recovery, prohibition of supermarkets to throw away consumable food.

The anti-waste law for a circular economy, adopted in February 2020, aims to strengthen existing measures to fight food waste. The law sets a goal of reducing food waste by 50% from its 2015 level in food distribution and collective catering by 2025 and by 50% from its 2015 level in consumption, production, processing and commercial catering by 2030. The goal is to phase out all single-use plastic packaging by 2040. The effects are already visible with the January 1, 2020 ban on cups, plates and cotton buds.

The National Waste Prevention Program for 2014-2020 has put on the agenda objectives to reduce the production of household waste and stabilize the production of waste from economic activities and construction through the implementation of 54 concrete actions.

The action of the United Nations agencies in Rome in the fight against food loss and waste

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

The reduction of losses and waste is a central objective for the FAO, since it simultaneously concerns issues of resource management, reduction of CO2 emissions, agricultural production, nutrition, food safety and quality. Reducing loss and waste is therefore an imperative for achieving more sustainable food systems.

The global initiative to reduce food loss and waste, SAVE FOOD, was initiated in 2011 by the FAO and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH.
The initiative aims to encourage dialogue between industry, researchers, politicians and civil society on the topic of food loss and waste. It is based on four pillars:

1. Raising awareness on the impact and solutions to food loss and waste: through the organization of conferences and multi-stakeholder gatherings

2. Collaboration and coordination of global initiatives on food loss and waste reduction

3. Development of a policy, strategy and program for the reduction of food loss and waste: through field studies

4. Support to investment programs and projects, implemented by the private and public sectors

FAO has also launched, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and several partners, the "Think. Eat. Preserve - Say No to Food Waste" campaign to support the SAVE FOOD initiative on the prevention and reduction of food waste. This campaign has seen the creation of a resource and information sharing portal. The collaboration between the two agencies is also at the origin of two fundamental indices to measure progress towards target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals: the Food Loss Index, managed by FAO, and the Food Waste Index, piloted by UNEP.

Finally, FAO and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) introduced in July 2020 a full version of the Technical Platform on Food Loss and Waste Assessment and Reduction, which has been under continuous development since its launch in 2015. The portal provides access to all of FAO’s resources on food loss and waste, including the largest collection of data on the nature of food lost or wasted and the geographic distribution of loss and waste, a discussion forum, examples of successful initiatives, online courses, a guidance document on food loss and waste in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, and tips that anyone can apply to reduce food waste.

This platform builds on and complements existing mechanisms, including the Global Community of Practice on Food Loss Reduction that is jointly managed by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), as well as the World Resources Institute’s Protocol on Food Loss and Waste. It also expands on the work done by the SAVE FOOD Network, IFPRI’s policies and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) research program on institutions and markets.

In consultation with member countries, FAO is developing a "Voluntary Code to Reduce Food Loss and Waste". The objective of the Code is to provide guidelines and standards for responsible practices to reduce losses and waste. Beginning in 2021, the Code will facilitate joint actions, harmonization of approaches, and assessment of progress toward Target 12.3, among other things.

At the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the topic of food loss and waste was the subject of a high-level panel report published in 2014 and led to the negotiation of policy recommendations at the Committee’s 41st plenary session in October 2014.

On September 29, 2020, FAO celebrated the first-ever International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day. The year 2020 and the beginning of 2021 were marked by the Covid-19 pandemic that pushed the additional 132 million people from food insecurity. Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations said that the loss and waste of food was "ethically shocking" in a time when so many people are hungry.

In the context of the Food Systems Summit in September 2021 and its pre-summit in Rome in July 2021, food loss and waste are linked to the necessary reform of production and consumption. The fight against losses and wastage requires a transversal and integrated approach of all the actors and sectors of agriculture and food. This effort concerns all the stages of the food systems, and reforming them does not go without a reflection on losses and wastage.

World Food Programme (WFP)

WFP is involved in reducing the losses that small-scale farmers face before and during the harvest phase due to pests, poor weather conditions or poor storage of crops. In Africa, WFP has introduced a storage program in partnership with the private sector that allows producers to store their food for an extended period of time, thereby avoiding the significant losses that can occur before the produce is transported. During the piloting of this program, three types of storage containers were subsidized in Uganda: airtight bags, plastic silos, and metal tanks. WFP is also working on optimizing the packaging used, which can significantly improve the duration and quality of food.

The Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) was also established by WFP to secure better livelihoods for small-scale producers by helping them transition to commercial agriculture. In addition to technology support and facilitating access to markets and finance, the alliance provides producers with planning and storage solutions to reduce losses. Since 2015, FtMA has enabled more than 90,000 African smallholder farmers to sell more than US$30 million in crops to commercial actors.

WFP is also committed to addressing food loss and waste with its Stop the Waste campaign. Launched in 2019, the campaign aims to raise awareness of food waste and encourage more sustainable consumption practices.

International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)

IFAD invests primarily in reducing agricultural losses in developing countries. Specifically, IFAD has dedicated in recent years 12% of its total investments to post-harvest infrastructure and equipment.

IFAD also supports innovative storage methods, such as the use of tarpaulins, solar dryers, plastic and metal silos, and hermetic storage bags.

IFAD also provides small farmers with advice and information sheets to reduce losses and waste.

The agency has carried out targeted actions, such as the "Zero Food Waste in Fishing Communities in Indonesia" project, with the help of the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, to improve the quality of catches and provide access to technologies to transport fish over long distances. By combating fish wastage, IFAD and the Indonesian Ministry have helped increase incomes, which has contributed to improved food security and reduced malnutrition.

China has also worked with IFAD to improve road access, build storage facilities and strengthen agricultural chains throughout China to reduce food waste, which amounts to 35 million tons of food or 6% of China’s total food production.

For further information :
  Check out the report « A decade of Food loss reduction" presenting IFAD’s portfolio on food loss reduction
  Read the presentation of the technical platform on the assessment and reduction of food loss and waste by FAO