Food Waste Facts
On this page, you will be able to get familiar with some statistics and data about world food waste.
General Facts
6. A 20% reduction in food waste would be enough to feed 25 million Americans.
10. European countries have three times more food than they actually need, while the US has four times more food.
11. 40 to 60% of all fish are discarded because of the wrong size, species or some other regulations.12. Food waste also has other costs:
a) 40-50% of wasted food uses up 25 % of all freshwater in the USA
b) 4% of total US oil consumption
c) it cost $750 million to dispose of this food
16. In developed countries food waste is created on 3 main levels: Manufacturer (20-25%), Distribution (15-20%) and Consumer (55-65%).
17. Every year the EU throws away 90 million tons of food. If put on trucks, it would span the equator.
18. The only products that have to display the ‘best before’ date, are ones that have no assumed risk to health if consumed after the expiration date.
19. There are laws that make producers throw out potatoes because they are too small, cucumbers too curvy and tomatoes that don’t have the right shade of red.
20. 1 of the 3 bites of food we eat, is thanks to the pollination of honeybees.
21. If you cut in half the percentage of food going into the landfill, you cut the methane gas emissions 7.5%, from depleting the ozone layer.
22. Retailers define the so-called ‘quality’ we live by, and we have to align ourselves accordingly. It is not based on nutritional value, just economic.
23. Most households throw away things they don’t need anymore. And if they might need them later, they simply restock.
24. Food is not meant to look good, it’s meant to taste good!
Facts about the retail sector
1. Supermarkets are one of the biggest companies in the world. In fact, Walmart is the biggest company in the world in terms of turnover. For the past couple of years, Carrefour (a French giant) has been growing constantly.
2. Supermarkets are the intermediary between manufacturers and consumers. They are responsible for creating the supply to which the demand is adjusted.
4. Very few supermarkets talk about their food waste (e.g. Waitrose, UK). Sometimes they mention organic waste, in general, it’s usually recycling.
One is for customers: use by or best by and the other is for supermarkets: sell by date.
To avoid selling expired products supermarkets throw out food that is still edible.
Facts about the gastronomy sector
1. An average restaurant in America disposes of about 50 tons of food waste each year, of which 76% is organic and can be recycled
2. The British restaurants dispose of in total of 600,000 tons of food waste per year
3. An average restaurant in Britain disposes of about 22 tons of food waste per year, which means each time a person eats, it creates 0.5 kg (1.2 lbs) of waste
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