Food Loss and Waste

Food Loss and Waste

According to United Nations agencies, approximately 13% of global food production is lost between harvest and retail through transport, storage, processing, and logistics. According to the FAO, a further 1.05 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted each year at retail, in food service and in households — 2022 data — equivalent to 19% of the food available to consumers.

Food loss describes a broader and more varied reality than waste alone. It covers all food that is lost, damaged, degraded, or rejected throughout value chains, from agricultural production to consumption. Food waste, in the strict sense, is only one part of this: it mainly concerns food that is still edible but is discarded at distribution or household level, often because of consumer behaviour or commercial standards.

Losses occur predominantly upstream and arise from technical, economic, or environmental constraints. They begin in agricultural production, where extreme climatic events — droughts, floods, and frost — or pests may destroy a significant share of a harvest. Market organisation creates further losses: some harvests cannot be transported in time because of border closures, conflicts, strikes, or logistical breakdowns, demonstrating how food systems depend on stable supply chains.

Other losses result from infrastructure failures. In many regions, the absence of suitable storage or a cold chain leads to rapid deterioration of perishable goods. These technical losses are compounded by economic losses caused by market regulation, such as the destruction of surpluses to comply with production quotas or the withdrawal of products that fail to meet commercial standards. Conversely, insufficient or poorly anticipated demand may leave perfectly sound harvests uncollected because no outlet is available.

Finally, losses also reflect structural imbalances within food systems. Surplus production, encouraged by intensification and efforts to secure yields, may exceed the market’s capacity to absorb it. This demonstrates that food security depends not only on the volumes produced, but also on their distribution, accessibility, and stability.

Distinguishing loss from waste therefore makes clear that the issue is not merely moral or behavioural, but systemic. Loss results from a combination of natural hazards, technical constraints, logistical failures, and economic regulation, whereas waste is more closely associated with final uses. Together, they reveal the inefficiencies of a complex food system in which a substantial share of production never fulfils its primary purpose: feeding people.