A recent United Nations report has revealed that the world wasted an estimated 19% of the food produced globally in 2022, totaling about 1.05 billion metric tons.
The U.N. Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report, published Wednesday, tracks the progress of countries to halve food waste by 2030.
The U.N. said the number of countries reporting for the index nearly doubled from the first report in 2021. The 2021 report estimated that 17% of the food produced globally in 2019, or 931 million metric tons (1.03 billion tons), was wasted, but authors warned against direct comparisons because of the lack of sufficient data from many countries.
The report is co-authored by UNEP and Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), an international charity.
Researchers analyzed country data on households, food service and retailers. They found that each person wastes about 79 kilograms (about 174 pounds) of food annually, equal to at least 1 billion meals wasted worldwide daily.
Most of the waste — 60% — came in households. About 28% came from food service, or restaurants, with about 12% from retailers.
