The paper titled “Beyond Food Loss and Waste Reduction Targets: Translating Reduction Ambitions into Policy Outcomes” says that reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is critical to finding global solutions to the triple challenge of feeding a growing world population, ensuring the livelihoods of households along the agro-food supply chain, and delivering on climate and environmental sustainability commitments.
Tracking the progress made in meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 12.3 of halving global per capita food waste, however, has been hampered by inconsistent definitions and metrics across countries and differing national policy approaches to FLW reduction, the paper observed. Reduction targets are often unclear, national policy commitments fragmented, and coordination is limited across government entities.
The issue of FLW has received international attention since 2011 when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published estimates that about 30% of all food produced is either lost or wasted. In 2020, an estimated 13.3% of the world's food was lost after harvesting and before reaching retail markets, a United Nations report in 2022 had said. A further 17% of food is estimated to be wasted at the retail and consumer level according to a UNEP, 2021 report. According to a 2024 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, households worldwide wasted over 1 billion meals a day in 2022.
The OECD paper has noted that reducing FLW also contributes to fulfilling emissions reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement and to reducing impact on natural resources (land, water and biodiversity).
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. SDG target 12.3 states that “by 2030 per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels should be halved and food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses should be reduced”.
Moreover, there is great complexity in estimating the food loss and food waste because of varying definitions adopted by countries covered in this report. The term Food Loss (FL) and Food Waste (FW) has been adopted by countries to their needs and conditions, sometimes making a distinction between avoidable and unavoidable FLW, or edible and inedible food parts, leaving wide interpretation gaps that depend on technology, economy, culture, and habits. The report has noted five distinct approaches used by countries and institutions.
Given the variations in the denomination of FL and FW used across countries covered in this study, FLW reporting is not harmonised. Only 40% of the countries report FL and FW separately. 44% report separately edible and inedible FLW while 23% make a distinction between avoidable and unavoidable FLW.
According to UNEP estimates 2024, 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted globally in 2022 (19% of total food production), with respectively around 60% occurring at the household level, 28% at food services level, and 12% at the retail stage. In addition, 13.2% of food production is lost in the supply chain worldwide, as estimated in 2023 by FAO from post-harvest up to and excluding retail.
Though the national targets, where they exist, generally align with SDG target 12.3, there are discrepancies. Seventy-four per cent (74%) of the countries covered in this report have set national FLW reduction targets that can be compared with SDG Target 12.3. About 46% of respondents set quantifiable targets to, at least, reduce by 50% their national FLW at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 (Criteria Aligned and Higher ambition). Ten of these countries set more ambitious targets than the SDG 12.3 commitment, e.g. a50% reduction in food waste by 2025, or in both food loss and food waste by 2030. However,12 respondents set lower targets, including those aligned with the currently proposed European Commission (EC) targets of a 30%reduction (per capita) jointly at retail and consumption (restaurants, food services and households). For the food processing and manufacturing stages, the EC proposal goes beyond the SDG ambition by setting a mandatory quantitative FW reduction target of 10%.
The causes of FLW by supply chain stage are now better understood, even if some supply chain stages such as the primary agricultural production stage and the hospitality and food services stage are less scrutinised. Despite progress, it appears that the multiple FLW denominations used across countries hinder comparable FLW data reporting. Only 7% of the countries covered in this report use the FAO Food Loss Index and 12% use the UNEP Food Waste Index. Most FLW strategies favour soft measures rather than a regulatory approach. Less than a third of the respondents have set up a binding FLW reduction target.
The report suggests streamlining for policy implementation and awareness raising campaigns. Research shows that awareness raising campaigns are more efficient when they focus on the individual consequences of food waste. It suggests strengthening of national commitments to drastic reduction in FLW.
It highlights that in many countries, FLW policy instruments are not systematically evaluated in terms of effectiveness. Evaluations in terms of economic, environmental, and social impacts are even rarer. Regular monitoring of the effectiveness of FLW initiatives could help identify what works and what can be improved. A more ambitious monitoring and evaluation approach would also take account of livelihood, food security and environmental sustainability impacts, and costs to leverage synergies. It could also include barriers to and enablers of effective changes. Ideally, mechanisms, timelines, and indicators for policy evaluations could be defined from the early stages of FLW policy design and development. (IPA Service)