In 2022, households around the world needlessly threw away around one billion meals a day, according to the estimate of the United Nations (UN), which yesterday condemned the “tragedy” of food waste in the world. The report on the food waste index of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) states that most such waste, 60 percent, comes from households.
About 28 percent of wasted food comes from restaurants, and 28 percent from supermarkets, butchers and other shops.
“Food waste is a global tragedy. Millions of people around the world will go hungry today because food is wasted,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Anderssen.
Richard Swannell from the non-governmental organization WRAP, who participated in the drafting of the report, said that one meal a day, made from wasted food, could feed all the people suffering from hunger in the world, and there are about 800 million of them.
The UN, in its second report on food waste, warns that the actual amount of wasted food could be much higher.