Rich nations waste $US750 billion of food each year, double the amount needed to end global hunger, David Beasley, head of the United Nations World Food Programme, said this week, in a statement marking World Food Day on Tuesday.
Here are some facts about how much food is wasted globally:
• About a third of the world’s food is lost or thrown away each year, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes, worth nearly $US1 trillion, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
• If current trends continue, food waste will rise to 2.1 billion tonnes annually by 2030. Almost half of all fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers produced are wasted, the UN said.
• Some 821 million people around the world were hungry in 2017.
• Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food – 222 million tonnes – as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa – 230 million tonnes.
• In developing countries, 40 per cent of losses occur post-harvest or during processing, while in industrialised countries more than 40 per cent of losses happen at retail and consumer levels.
• Food waste squanders land and water used to produce it, and also releases methane, a greenhouse gas, when left to rot.
• US consumers waste nearly 454 grams of food per person each day – the equivalent of four portions of chicken or a pint of blueberries.
• In Europe, 88 million tonnes of food are wasted annually at a cost of €143 billion.
• In Britain, £15 billion pounds worth of edible food is binned every year, including the equivalent of three million glasses of milk.
Sources: UN FAO; European Parliament; University of Vermont; Wrap; Boston Consulting Group.
