Why is it important to reduce food loss and waste?

Around 14 percent of the world's food is lost after harvest, up to - but not including the retail stage of the supply chain, and an estimated 17 per cent is wasted in retail and at the consumption level.

This food loss and waste account for 8 -10 per cent of the total global GHGs - contributing to an unstable climate and extreme weather events such as droughts and flooding. These changes negatively impact crop yields, reduce the nutritional quality of crops, cause supply chain disruptions and threaten food security and nutrition.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – specifically SDG 12, target 12.3 – calls for halving per- capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains.

An estimated 3.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to a healthy diet and some 828 million people go hungry. All of this means there is an urgent need to accelerate action to reduce food loss and waste.

With eight years left to reach the target, the urgency for scaling up action to reduce food loss and waste cannot be overemphasized. Reducing food loss and waste presents an opportunity for immediate climate benefits while improving the overall sustainability of our food systems – a necessary transformation to ensure better planetary and nutritional outcomes for current and future generations.