Synergy between SDGs 12.3 and 2.1 in lower-middle-income countries through the lens of food waste and energy imbalance

Halving food wastage at retail and consumer levels by 2030 is a target for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3. Although previous studies have indicated that the food wastage extent differs based on the national income level, the relevance of this relationship is debatable owing to the controversial quantification of food wastage, usually performed using two methods based on actual generation or gaps for human calorific requirements. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate this issue by analyzing the correlation between food energy imbalance and per capita income using food wastage generation data for 51 comparable counties. The results revealed possible synergies between SDG 12.3 and the improvement of food security (SDG 2.1) in certain lower-middle-income countries. That is, the per capita food wastage in countries facing a food energy deficit (95 kg/year) is remarkably higher than that in countries that have resolved their food energy deficit (66 kg/year). We presume that prolonging the food shelf-life could be the key factor in linking SDGs 12.3 and 2.1. Furthermore, as the lack of reliable data in lower-middle-income countries hinders the verification of this synergy, we propose 19 lower-middle-income countries for future investigation to verify the synergy between SDGs 12.3 and 2.1.