Around 1,3 billion tons of food are wasted annually in the world, which correspond to almost 1/3 of the food production (FAO data).
Only in EU are thrown away around 88 million tons of edibles, 180 kilos each every year, with associated costs totally estimated at 143 billion euro.
Wasting food is not only an economic issue but also ethical, it reflects the social unbalance and disparity between whom is wasting and whom has not enough to eat: 222 billion tons of food in the bin of the developed countries (as much as the whole production of Africa Sub-Saharan, equal to 230 million tons), while 795 billion of people (98% in developing countries) are suffering of hunger.
FAO calculated that the global production of agriculture could feed one and half the entire population.
Where is, then, the portion of food which should go to whom is starving? Wasted.
Sadly, all the food wasted worldwide would cover four times the needs of malnourished!
In particular, it’s possible to distinguish among:
- Food loss during the farming, post harvesting, industrial transformation and transportation of the goods;
- Food waste during the final steps of the chain (distribution, retail, consumption).
There is a urgent problem of access to food between rich and poor people, North (West) and South (East), developed and developing countries; in the first 40% of the dissipation of food occurs along the big distribution and at domestic level, instead in the second the 40% of the loss of food during the processing phase and the preservation of it.
Therefore all the actors in the food chain have a role to play in preventing and reducing food waste, from those who produce and process foods (farmers, food manufacturers, processors) to those who make foods available for consumption (hospitality sector, supermarkets, retailers) and ultimately consumers themselves.
In conclusion it’s important to consider that food waste also depletes the environment of limited natural resources, sacrificed to produce, process, distribute and serve it.
