Vast amounts of food are lost or wasted across the food chain, often before they ever reach our plates. But the real scandal of food waste is not only what it does to the climate or to landfills. It is that so much of it is not waste at all.

As the world marked the International Day of Zero Waste on Monday, a United Nations expert emphasized the urgent need to tackle food waste, warning that while billions of tons of edible food are lost along the supply chain each year, hundreds of millions of people continue to go hungry worldwide.

This year’s International Day of Zero Waste focuses on food waste – what we eat, what we waste, and how we can reduce food waste as a pathway to environmental protection, greater economic stability, stronger community resilience and more accessible, efficient food systems.

Marking the International Day of Zero Waste, state authorities, associations, charity organizations and private-sector representatives convened in Tbilisi on 30 March for a national forum on food loss and waste reduction and food donation.

On the occasion of the International Day of Zero Waste, FAO, IFAD, and WFP, together with the Republic of Türkiye, marked the tenth anniversary of the Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste (TPFLW).