This document discusses food waste and sustainable development. It summarizes that approximately 1 billion tons of food is wasted each year, with 61% coming from households and 26% from food service. Reducing food waste can help address food insecurity, climate change, and other issues. The UN aims to halve food waste by 2030 under SDG 12.3. The Food Waste Index estimates that 1 billion tons of food is wasted annually at retail and consumer levels, costing nearly $1 trillion and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Collecting better food waste data can help track progress and guide strategies to reduce waste.

1. March 31st , 2021
Food Waste and Sustainable Development

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5. Food Waste and Sustainable Development
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Food waste is a significant issue in almost every country. Every year around one
billion tons of food is wasted. 61% of this waste comes from households, 26% from
food service and 13% from retail. Currently, two billion people in the world are
malnourished, and it is expected that by 2050 we will need 60% more food to feed
the globe’s population.
With food insecurity spreading to hundreds of millions around the world, addressing
food waste is a critical issue for creating low-impact, healthy and resilient food
systems. Reducing food waste provides multifaceted gains for people, planet and
prosperity. It improves food security, addresses the global problems of climate
change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, and reduces burden on waste management
systems.
The Food Waste Index and Sustainable Development Goal 12.3
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aim to halve food waste by 2030. The
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) published in March 2021 the Food
Waste Index 2021 report, which estimates global food waste and a common
methodology for measuring and reporting food waste under SDG target 12.3. The
Food Waste Index is the first of its kind that highlights the food waste scale and
indicates that global food waste is more than twice the size of previous estimates.
According to the report, one billion tons of food is wasted annually at the retail and
consumer levels. This food waste generates 8-10% of global greenhouse gas
emissions, affecting biodiversity, land and water resources and costing governments,
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Food Waste and Sustainable Development

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companies and families nearly a trillion US dollars.
Accurate, trackable and comparable measurement is a key starting point for
achieving reduced food waste. There are still some data gaps; the significant one is
the proportion of inedible parts. As measured in the Food Waste Index, food waste
includes both food destined for human consumption and the edible parts associated
with it. Understanding how food waste is separated in a particular sector between
the edible and non-edible parts will help stakeholders understand the problem and
design solutions. Measuring food waste at the retail and food service level will
strengthen estimates in most countries, developing national food waste prevention
strategies.
The report helps track national progress towards 2030 and achieving SDG 12.3 by:
• More comprehensive food waste collection, analysis and modeling processes,
resulting in a new appreciation of global food waste. This will help provide insight
into the scale of the problem and into the substantial prevention potential in low,
middle and high income countries.
• Disseminating a methodology for countries to measure food waste at the
household, food service and retail level. Countries using this methodology will
generate strong evidence to guide a national strategy on food waste prevention.
In addition to sufficient food waste estimates, to allow meaningful comparisons
between countries at the global level.
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Food Waste and Sustainable Development

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Estimates for the Food Waste Index will be requested every two years, in line with
data requests from the United Nations Statistics Division. For countries that measure
for the first time, the base year will be 2021, and for countries with food waste
measurements before 2021, they can report food waste every year they have data on
it.
Countries and organizations take action
Some countries and organizations have already moved to take measures towards this
issue. Australia, Norway and the United States have set targets to reduce the amount
of food waste they generate by 50% by 2030 aligning with the SDG 12.3. France and
Italy have also banned supermarkets from disposing of unsold food and have
required them to donate excess food to charities and food banks.
Only by working together can we prevent unnecessary food waste and protect the
planet. UNEP has launched regional working groups on food waste to spur other
countries to support countries (Asia and the Pacific, Western Asia, Africa, Latin
America and the Caribbean) with less data on food waste. The program will help
countries build capacities to measure and reduce food waste, peer-to-peer
collaboration, and establish baselines for reporting on SDG 12.3 in 2022 and national
strategies to prevent food waste.
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Food Waste and Sustainable Development

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Creating a Sustainable Food Future
Food waste is a waste of resources, time and money. To make real change, we need
collective efforts and a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient food system.
Reducing food waste at all levels can have significant environmental, social and
economic benefits. We need to increase efforts to measure food and non-edible parts
wasted and track the generation of food waste per capita at the country level. With
reliable data, we will track progress in achieving SDG 12.3.
The Food Waste Index encourages countries to use its methodology to measure food
waste – at the household, food service, and retail level – to guide national food
waste prevention strategies and track progress towards the 2030 goals. At the
consumer or household level, the FAO suggests a range of ways to waste less food,
such as following a healthy diet, buying only what you need and storing food wisely.
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Food Waste and Sustainable Development

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