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This year, the UN are set to mark the first observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. This is a key day to highlight the huge global food wastage, particularly as global hunger is still rife. Food wastage primarily occurs food labels and ‘use by’ dates often being misunderstood, alongside improper food storage resulting in food prematurely becoming inedible. However, there is also great food loss on a harvest level, which is often due to inadequate harvesting times, climatic conditions and issues with marketing of produce.

In 2011, the FAO found that around 30% of the World’s food supply is lost or damaged every year!

Food loss also means the loss of vital resources- when food so is the water, energy and human effort used in growing and producing the food!
In 2011, the FAO found that around 30% of the World’s food supply is lost or damaged every year!

This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, food wastage was at an all-time high, despite food banks often going without. Many consumers rushed to stockpile and ‘panic buy’ food products, which not only results in food banks missing out on vital donations from supermarkets but also meant that much of this stockpiled food was not even consumed in time.

Through the International Day of Food Loss and Waste, the UN hopes to achieve greater awareness into both sustainable consumption and sustainable production of food, in order to promote better food security and nutrition. The UN’s goal of ‘Responsible consumption and production’ are only part of the fight against Climate Change and a step towards Zero Hunger.

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