In the European Union (EU), food waste is defined by combining the definitions of food and waste, namely: "any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans (.)" (including things such as drinks and chewing gum excluding things such as feed, medicine, cosmetics, tobacco products, and narcotic or psychotropic substances) "which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard". European Union Protest against food waste, Berlin, Germany Under Sustainable Development Goal 12, the Food and Agriculture Organization is responsible for measuring food loss, while the UN Environmental Program measures food waste. Inedible parts are not considered as food loss or waste (these inedible parts are sometimes referred to as unavoidable food waste) Food redirected to nonfood chains (including animal feed, compost, or recovery to bioenergy) is not counted as food loss or waste.Important components of this definition include: Food waste occurs at the retail and consumption level.Food loss occurs along the food supply chain from harvest/slaughter/catch up to, but not including, the sales level.Within this framework, UN Agencies distinguish loss and waste at two different stages in the process: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines food loss and waste as the decrease in quantity or quality of food along the food supply chain. Professional bodies, including international organizations, state governments, and secretariats may use their own definitions. Terms are often defined on a situational basis (as is the case more generally with definitions of waste). Definitions of what constitutes food loss versus food waste or what parts of foods (i.e., inedible parts) exit the food supply chain are considered lost or wasted vary. Definition A conceptual framework for food loss and waste (FLW) įood loss and waste occurs at all stages of the food supply chain – production, processing, sales, and consumption. In the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference nations agree to reduce food waste by 50% by the year 2030. Climate change mitigation strategies prominently feature reducing food waste. The UN's Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 seeks to "halve global per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses" by 2030. Moreover, reducing food waste in all parts of the food system is an important part of reducing the environmental impact of agriculture, by reducing the total amount of water, land, and other resources used. Other considerations include unreclaimed phosphorus in food waste leading to further phosphate mining. Reuse pathways of surplus food intended for human consumption, such as food donation, is the next best strategy after prevention, followed by animal feed, recycling of nutrients and energy followed by the least preferred option, landfill, which is a major source of the greenhouse gas methane. Prevention of food waste is the highest priority, and when prevention is not possible, the food waste hierarchy ranks the food waste treatment options from preferred to least preferred based on their negative environmental impacts. įood loss and waste is a major part of the impact of agriculture on climate change (it amounts to 3.3 billion tons of CO 2e emissions annually ) and other environmental issues, such as land use, water use and loss of biodiversity. The analysis estimated that global food waste was 931 million tonnes of food waste (about 121 kg per capita) across three sectors: 61 percent from households, 26 percent from food service and 13 percent from retail. A 2021 meta-analysis that did not include food lost during production, by the United Nations Environment Programme found that food waste was a challenge in all countries at all levels of economic development. Overall, about one-third of the world's food is thrown away. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Food recovered by food waste critic Rob Greenfield in Madison, Wisconsin, from two days of recovery from dumpsters įood loss and waste is food that is not eaten.
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