Impact of Reducing Food Loss and Waste on Sustainable Food Systems

According to the FAO report on food losses and waste, based on 2007 data (FAO, 2011), ‘Roughly one-third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted globally’. As part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 is a global commitment to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. This calls for a halving of per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels as well as reducing food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses by 2030. In monitoring SDG 12, estimates of food loss and food waste are improving. The FAO estimates that globally around 13 per cent of food produced is lost after harvesting and before reaching retail markets (FAO, 2019); while UNEP finds that 19 per cent of total global food production is wasted in households, the food services and retail (UNEP, 2024). In developing its capacity to track impacts beyond market outcomes, and gauge the effects of market developments on food systems, the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2024–2033 (hereafter the Outlook) has developed enhanced estimates for food intake and integrated food loss and waste into its global balances. The left panel (a) of Figure 1 shows the shares of food loss and waste by weight. Vegetables and fruits are the main contributors to the overall loss and waste. In terms of food security and nutrition, food loss and waste shares can be converted to calories (right panel (b) of Figure 1) to reflect the amount of energy in different commodities. Cereals, pulses, roots and tubers, the primary source of calories in most of the world's poorest populations, account for almost two-thirds of the lost and wasted calories, with cereals alone contributing over half (53 per cent). By 2033 under the assumption of constant food loss and waste shares, the Outlook projects that close to 700 million tonnes of food will be lost between harvest/slaughter/catch and retail, while a further 1,140 million tonnes will be wasted at retail and household levels. Note: ‘Other animal food products’ includes eggs and fish. Based on these two assumptions, the scenario projects that global direct GHG emissions from agriculture would fall by 4 per cent, a reduction distributed relatively evenly across countries regardless of income levels. It would also result in increasing the average per capita calorie intake in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (Figure 2), potentially reducing the number of people facing hunger worldwide in 2030 by 153 million (a 26 per cent reduction). While the scenario illustrates potential benefits for consumers and the environment, there are challenges for producers as decreased production and lower producer prices would significantly impact their livelihoods: the impacts on consumers and producers are sensitive to the assumptions. The scenario shows the benefits of reaching the reduction target set in SDG 12. Nevertheless, this target is a highly ambitious upper bound and would require substantial changes along the food chain, including, but not limited to, investing in cold storage and efficient transport to reduce food loss in low-income areas or raising awareness of expiration dates and responsible consumption to curb waste in high-income regions. A growing number of countries are setting national targets for reducing food loss and waste and implementing policies aimed at achieving these targets. A forthcoming OECD report on food loss and waste policies indicates that almost all OECD countries have national strategies, and all have implemented policies to support these strategies.