Reducing food loss and waste can improve food security and nutrition, conserve natural resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase economic productivity.

FAO estimates that food loss and waste contribute around 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Governments should examine food loss and waste across the full supply chain: harvesting, storage, transportation, wholesale markets, processing, retail, restaurants and households.

The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste is observed on 29 September. The occasion should make us confront a troubling contradiction: while hundreds of millions of people still go hungry and billions struggle to afford a healthy diet, an enormous share of the food already produced never reaches a human stomach. This year’s theme, “The Transformative Potential of Reducing Food Loss and Waste,” goes far beyond avoiding waste. Reducing food loss and waste can improve food security and nutrition, conserve natural resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase economic productivity. In other words, producing more food is only one part of the challenge; we must also use the food we already produce better. The scale of the problem can be analyzed through data. FAO estimates indicate that around 13 percent of food produced globally is lost after harvest and before reaching retail. At the other end of the food chain, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2024 estimates that another 19 percent of food available to consumers is wasted in households, restaurants and other food-service establishments, and retail businesses. This means that food loss and food waste are related but distinct problems. Food may be lost between the farm and the market because of inadequate harvesting techniques, poor storage, weak transport infrastructure, lack of refrigeration, processing deficiencies or disruptions in supply chains. It may then be wasted at the retail, food-service or household level because too much is purchased or prepared, edible food is discarded, or markets and consumers reject food that remains safe to eat. Both ultimately produce the same unacceptable result: resources have been consumed to produce food that nobody eats. Food waste and food loss are also linked with global hunger. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI), global hunger declined for the third consecutive year in 2025, yet approximately 645 million........

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