Over 1 billion meals went to waste a day in 2022: UN food waste report

As It Happens6:28Over a billion meals went to waste a day in 2022, UN food waste report says

Richard Swannell says you would need an area the size of China to grow all the food people throw away.

"That is a staggering amount of food ... which we could do so much better with," Swannell, director of impact growth at Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. 

The U.K.-based NGO worked with the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) on a new report on food waste which was released on Wednesday. It found 1.05 billion tonnes of food went to waste in 2022, which includes inedible food. 

It says about 19 per cent of food available to consumers was lost overall at the retail, food services and household levels. Another 13 per cent of food was lost in the supply chain, between post-harvest and up to and excluding retail.

Global impact

The report found that each person, on average, wastes about 79 kilograms of food annually, which is the average in Canada as well. The UN says that's the equivalent of 1.3 meals every day for every person in the world impacted by hunger. 

A separate UN report from last year found that in 2022, as many as 783 million people faced hunger worldwide.

That amounts to a little over one billion lost meals every day.

"Food waste is a global tragedy. Millions will go hungry today as food is wasted across the world," UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said in a press release.

Swannell says it's not just about how that wasted food could be used — that waste also has an environmental impact.

"Food loss and waste across the entire supply chain is responsible for between eight and 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is just a huge amount," said Swannell. 

If food waste was a country, he said, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. 

UNEP says it aims to have global food waste cut in half by 2030 — and for that to happen, all countries need to take action.

Its report pointed out that food waste isn't just confined to rich countries; it found that upper-middle income and lower-middle income countries waste a similar amount of food.

Swannell said there are places that are getting it right. According to the report, the U.K., has been able to reduce food waste across the food chain by 18 per cent, and Japan has reduced waste by 31 per cent.

He says countries have done this through campaigns designed to change people's behaviour about food waste, such as WRAP's own Love Food, Hate Waste that operates in many countries including Canada.

Swannell says governments are responsible for tracking food waste, so they can really see where the focus needs to be. But he added that it takes some work from businesses as well. 

"The mantra is clear: it's target, measure, act," said Swannell.

Many unaware how much food they waste: Swannell

The report also found found that there was a big difference between how much food went to waste in cities compared to rural areas, with cities wasting more. 

When Swannell works with businesses, he encourages them to track their waste, because it shows how much money can be saved simply by making the best use of the food they have. 

"We've done research, for example, with the World Resources Institute that shows that on average, when businesses invest in measurement and reducing food waste, they get a great return on investment," he said.

"For every $1 invested in this activity, on average, you're getting somewhere around $7 back."

And the same goes for individuals, as the majority of food waste happens at home. The report found households make up 60 per cent of global food waste.

Swannell says the biggest problem is that people are unaware of how much they throw out. 

"If we just put a container on the side and put in the amount of food thrown away in the average week, it will surprise all of us. And that'll show us exactly how much we could save simply by wasting less," he said.

Swannell suggested people plan ahead before they go shopping, and store most fruits and vegetables in the fridge. 

He says getting portion sizes right and using leftovers wisely is key as well. 

"If we got any sort of leftover bananas or apples and any other fruit, I just chuck it into a bowl and then whisk it up and make a great smoothie out of it," he said.

"The two mantras in the back of my mind [are], buy what we need and eat what we buy."