Food Waste Index Report 2024
Source: PIB
GS II: Issues relating to poverty and hunger
Overview
- Need for The index
- About the Food Waste Index Report 2024
Why in the News?
Examines effective approaches to reducing food waste globally, with a spotlight on public-private partnerships in this 2024 report.
Need for The index
- Assessing food waste allows countries to understand the scale of the issue, highlighting opportunities for improvement and establishing a baseline for progress tracking SDG 12.3.
- The Food Waste Index Report 2021 was a crucial step in comprehending global food waste in retail, food service, and households.
- It uncovered more data on food waste than anticipated, particularly at the household level, and showed that household food waste per capita was more consistent worldwide than previously thought.
- The Food Waste Index Report 2024 builds on its predecessor in three key ways
- Firstly, it includes a broader range of global data, resulting in stronger estimates.
- Secondly, it expands on the methodology introduced in the 2021 report, providing enhanced guidance across sectors.
- This includes discussions on various methodologies, their pros and cons, and strategies for prioritizing measurement in sub-sectors.
- Finally, the report goes beyond measuring food waste to explore solutions for its reduction.
About the Food Waste Index Report 2024
- It is a study jointly authored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), a U.K.-based non-profit.
- It tracks the global and national generation of food and inedible parts wasted at the retail and consumer (household and food service) levels.
Key Facts in the Report
- The report defines “food waste” as the removal of both edible and inedible parts from the human food supply chain.
- “Food loss” is described as the quantities of crop and livestock products exiting the post-harvest/slaughter production/supply chain up to, but not including, the retail level.
- It is highlighted that in 2022, approximately 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste were generated, inclusive of inedible parts. This equates to 132 kilograms per capita, representing nearly one-fifth of all food available to consumers.
- Several low- and middle-income countries still lack sufficient systems to monitor progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which aims to halve food waste by 2030.
- Currently, only four G-20 countries (Australia, Japan, U.K., U.S.) and the European Union possess suitable food waste estimates for monitoring progress.
- Warmer climates tend to produce more food waste per capita in households, potentially due to increased consumption of fresh foods containing significant inedible portions and a lack of robust cold chain infrastructure.
- In comparison to urban areas, rural regions typically exhibit lower levels of food wastage, attributed to a greater tendency to divert food scraps to pets, livestock, and home composting.
- As of 2022, merely 21 countries had integrated food loss and/or waste reduction into their climate plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
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