Food Waste Index Report 2021:
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the Food Waste Index Report 2021.
- It has revealed that 17% of all food available at the consumer level (11% in households, 5% in foodservice and 2% in retail) was wasted in 2019 and around 690 million people had to go hungry.
About the Report:
- It presents the most comprehensive food waste data collection, analysis, and modelling to date, generating a new estimate of global food waste.
- It also publishes a methodology for countries to measure food waste, at household, foodservice, and retail levels, to track national progress towards 2030.
- In contrast to the Food Loss Index, the Food Waste Index measures total food waste (rather than loss or waste associated with specific commodities).
Findings:
- This report estimates that around 931 million tonnes of food waste were generated in 2019.
- 61% of which came from households, 26% from foodservice and 13% from retail.
- Food waste generation is found to be equally relevant across all income countries such as high, upper‑middle and lower-middle-income countries.
- Developed Countries like Austria produce very low amounts of waste at 39 kg/capita/year. On the other hand, countries like Nigeria are producing waste at 189 kg/capita/year. For India, the waste in kg/capita/year was 50.
- This diverges from earlier narratives concentrating consumer food waste in developed countries, and food production, storage and transportation losses in developing countries.
- Global food waste data availability is currently low, and measurement approaches have been highly variable.
