GLOBAL FOOD LOSSES
AND FOOD WASTE

EXTENT CAUSES AND PREVENTION

Study conducted for the
International Congress

SAVE FOOD!

at Interpack2011
Düsseldorf, Germany

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rome 2011

ABSTRACT

The study highlights the losses occurring along the entire food chain, and makes assessments of their magnitude. Further, it identifies causes of food losses and possible ways of preventing them. The results of the study suggest that roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. This inevitably also means that huge amounts of the resources used in food production are used in vain, and that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production of food that gets lost or wasted are also missions in vain.

Table of Contents

Preface Executive summary	[44Kb]
1. Introduction 2. Methodology	[61Kb]
3. Extent of food losses and waste	[519Kb]
4. Causes and prevention of food losses and waste	[134Kb]
5. Conclusions References Further reading	[83Kb]
Annex 1. Grouping of world regions Annex 2. Commodity groups Annex 3. Additional references for quantifying food losses/waste Annex 4. Weight percentages of food losses and waste (in percentage of what enters each step) Annex 5. Example of calculations of food losses and waste	[376Kb]

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