Food that is lost and wasted could feed 1.26 billion hungry people every year

Speaking at an event to mark the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations emphasized it was time to stop listing the challenges and to move to concrete actions.

Currently more than 13 percent of food produced globally is lost in the supply chain from after harvest and prior to retail, and a further 17 per cent is wasted in households, in food services and in retail, according to FAO and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) statistics.

At the same time, millions of people across the world are malnourished, and the world is off course to achieve most globally agreed nutrition targets. Reducing food loss and waste is central in the transformation of agrifood systems by increasing the availability of food, contributing to food security, healthy diets, building resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.