Understanding FLAPP
Food loss often begins right at the farm. A significant portion of global food production is lost before it even leaves the field — and that’s where FLAPP comes in.
Launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2023, FLAPP is a free, easy-to-use, and data-driven tool designed to help farmers, companies, producer associations, and cooperatives make informed decisions to reduce food losses.
Today, FLAPP is used in over 38 countries and supports 13 key crops, including maize, tomatoes, beans, rice, ground nuts, and wheat.
FLAPP has been internationally recognized as a Champion in the e-Agriculture category, highlighting its alignment with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What FLAPP Offers:
- A simple mobile tool to track and analyze food losses across the entire value chain.
- A growing global dataset and public good that deepens our understanding of where, how, and why food losses occur, enabling targeted action.
- A collaborative platform with practical solutions to reduce food losses, improve food security and environmental sustainability, and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Prevent Food Loss from Desktop and Mobile devices.
FLAPP has versions for any kind of device with an optimised and user-friendly interface to help you preventing Food Loss.
Using FLAPP in the Field
FLAPP is designed for farmers, companies, producer associations, cooperatives, NGOs, and institutions collecting data on food loss.
Getting started is quick and easy—FLAPP works on both Android and iOS, and functions online or offline.
How to Get Started:
- Register as an individual (self-reporting) or as part of an organization.
- Select your country and crop—FLAPP automatically adapts to your context. Complete the survey, organized by stages of loss: Pre-harvest, Left in the field, post-harvest.
- Track your progress—surveys can be saved and completed later.
- Review your data on your dashboard or export it to Excel for reporting.
Key Features:
- Progress tracker from 0% to 100% completion
- Offline access with automatic sync when back online
- Instant results upon survey completion
- Tailored video advisories and interactive data visualizations
- Excel export for further analysis or reporting
Recognitions
FLAPP has been honored as a Champion Project in the E-Agriculture category of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2025.
This international recognition highlights FLAPP’s innovative role in using digital tools to support sustainable agriculture and reduce food loss.
Data & Insights
FLAPP is more than a data collection tool—it helps turn information into actionable insights to effectively reduce food losses.
Designed for producers, researchers, ministries, and development agencies, FLAPP makes it easier to understand and reduce food losses at every stage of the value chain.
With FLAPP, you can:
- Pinpoint where, when, and why losses occur
- Analyze losses by stage (pre-harvest, harvest, post-harvest)
- Identify key causes of food loss
- Export data for use on dashboards, reports, and further analysis
- Bring solutions to farmers to reduce their losses
Data collected through FLAPP support:
- Strategic planning by ministries of agriculture
- Capacity building by NGOs and institutions
- Transparency and traceability in food value chains
- Continuous learning for farmers and cooperatives
FAO regularly expands FLAPP with new crop scenarios and provides support to help governments integrate the tool into national data systems.
Publications
Publications
Food Loss in Agrifood Systems: What We Know
06/2023
In 2015, the United Nations and the G20 put food loss and food waste on the global agenda. While progress has been made since then, the scale of the...
Publications
On the origins of food loss
03/2021
In this paper, why try to understand what the maincauses of food losses (FLs) are. Our results show that producers' education and experience and the...
Publications
Quantity and Quality food losses across the Value Chain: a comparative analysis
03/2021
The essential first steps of addressing the problem of food loss are measuring the loss, identifying where in the food system it occurs, and developing...
Videos
Video
FLAPP: FAO's unique transformative tool in the fight against food loss
28/08/2025
FLAPP is a pioneering digital solution designed to help farmers, companies, producer associations, and cooperatives make informed decisions to reduce...
Video
FLAPP (FAO Food Loss App) - Monitoring and Reducing Food Loss in the Dominican Republic
21/01/2025
Food losses include products lost or damaged throughout the value chain up to the wholesale market. Numerous FAO projects work directly with farmers...
Video
FAO Food Loss App - FLAPP
29/09/2023
FAO has just developed a new app to convert a methodology to measure food losses at the farm level. The Food Loss App - FLAPP - is the result of a study...