In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, food is a basic need for all humans and living beings for survival providing essential nutrients for growth, development, and well-being. Food is cherished in every culture and religion as bounty and blessing. Food sustainability and security is an inseparable part of nations’ security. Yet despite its high value, food is often wasted or lost. Indeed, food loss and waste (FLW) have become global critical issues that require multi-stakeholder efforts to manage.

The United Nations (UN) Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates that approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year. The United National Environmental Program (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2024 confirms that approximately 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted globally in 2022. FLW not only wastes nutritive food resources but also wastes land resources, water and energy used to produce the food. Regrettably, much of wasted food ends in landfills creating additional negative environmental stresses such as increase in green-house gas emissions from the decomposed organic food waste.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency reports that 30-40% of food produced in the USA is never eaten. In the UAE, it is estimated that 38% of food prepared is wasted at a cost of 6 billion AED annually. In KSA, in 2021, the overall FLW was estimated to be 33.1% at a rate of 184kg/year/capita and cost of SAR 13 billion annually. In Germany, -FLW is 78 kg/capita/year, with the German restaurant wasting 15% of input food products. In Nigeria, the UN reports that 37.9 million tonnes of food is wasted at the rate of 189kg/capita/year. This clearly highlights the global nature of the problem irrespective of country or region and a need for universal solutions. The unfathomable irony of FLW is that this global phenomenon occurs on the backdrop of an alarming figure of more than 9.2% (733 million people) of the world’s population facing hunger and 2.33 billion people globally facing moderate or severe food insecurity according to the latest reports by the UN’s FAO and World Health Organization in their joint report 2024 “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”. Therefore, management of FLW promises to have significant economic, social, and environmental benefits and would support global sustainability, health, and food security for many nations across the globe.

Given these stark realities in mind, UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG12.3 optimistically called for nations to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses”. The hopes of SDG12.3 ever succeeding by 2030 requires the promotion of sustainable and efficient food systems and practices with collaborative participation of all stakeholders of the food supply chain from producers to consumers.

At the production level, the agricultural sector requires much reform in its practices of crop production and cattle farming. This starts with significant management of production volumes to match consumption demands rather than over production for market competition to flood markets of specific brands. Secondary manufacturing industries (e.g. canning factories and extrusion processing) can be established adjacently to preserve surplus volumes from going to waste. Other losses at the agricultural level, occur from inadequate harvesting techniques, crop damage, pest infestation, and poor storage mechanisms that result in spoilage. Farmer education and training, use of improved agricultural technologies and harvesting methods are needed. Legislation in countries also needs to promote the competitive advantage for local farmers to produce and distribute their goods within local markets. Moreover, investing in enhanced food technologies, processing, and packaging methods (e.g. Vacuum sealing, atmosphere packaging) would greatly enhance food preservation measures at scale in fresh forms and in novel flavours.

The distribution and retail stakeholders also have a large part to play in food preservation and reduction of FLW. This starts from distributors and retailers championing purchase of produce from local farmers even if they don’t match consumer ‘aesthetic’ choices of size, form, or shape i.e. ‘ugly’ produce which is perfectly nutritious and safe to eat. Concurrently, consumer nutritional knowledge and purchasing behaviour needs to be aligned. Legislation and municipal reforms should mandate that distributors and retailers of foodstuffs invest in efficient cold storage and transportation vehicles that are regularly maintained. This ensures safety, freshness, and edibility of the foodstuff until they reach the consumer and avoids food loss. Big supermarket retailers have a large role to play in reduction of FLW. Initially, retailers should invest in better inventory systems preferably ones that have predictive AI technologies. Such technologies could be programmed to identify early on the soon-to-perish items and create prompts for feasible diversion and utilizing of these foods in different parts of their stores. Supermarkets could reduce or seasonally alternate the volume and variety of “impulse items” or “grab-and go” items that have a short shelf-life like deli sushi, dairy-filled cakes, etc.. It is a tough decision for supermarkets to balance sustainable practices that reduce FLW, while trying to maintain the market competitive edge of offering variety and continuous options to cater for the increasingly picky palate of consumers. Nonetheless, research from a recent survey by McKinsey and Co indicates that 66% of all respondents and 75% of millennials are willing to consider purchasing products even at higher premiums from brands and retailers that are sustainably conscious and align with their sustainable values and priorities. Therefore, bold shifts by retailers towards sustainably conscious practices could be seen as future opportunities for growth.

 The hospitality industry including restaurants, hotels, and caterers, should be mindful of consumption planning e.g. portion sizes, catering to occupancy levels matching bookings. 

Educating consumers to reduce household food waste is paramount and can be achieved through public awareness and education drives supported by all stakeholders especially educational institutions. Consumers can be taught practical nutritional knowledge and skills such as understanding of “best before dates”, cooking skills and tools for food handling and repurposing at home, such as drying, pickling and other mechanisms of food preservation to prolong food life. 

To support the above, community practices and government legislation should drive collective responsible action towards curtailing FLW. For example, food redistribution programmes and initiatives should be encouraged where food is rescued in a fit-for-consumption quality and redistributed through food banks or as charitable aid donations to impoverished communities, locally and globally. Quantification of FLW needs to occur holistically, to ensure that legislation is formulated effectively.  Despite the above suggested solutions, FLW will be curtailed but not stopped completely. In these cases, establishing circular businesses and technologies for effective sustainable and green handling of organic food waste is still needed. These solutions include composting of collected perished foods and their conversion to usable fertilizers. This can be done directly at source or outsourced. In farms, such circular solutions can be performed in-house with minimal investment, or through dedicated collection companies that perform organic waste collection and composting. Additionally, new technologies using engineered black soldier flies are being used to divert organic food waste from landfills to manufacture fertilizers or high-protein high-fat animal feed from the flies’ maggots. Investing in novel technologies and green options for circularity is imperative.

Given the scale and the complexity of global FWL, this is a Call to Action for all individual, institutional, organizational, community, government, local and global stakeholders to foster partnerships to act now to deliver on the promise of SDG 12.3 by 2030.

Dr. Meis Moukayed is a Clinical Scientist and Professor of Health and Life Sciences at the American University in Dubai. She banks over 25 years’ experience in the health, science, and education sectors. She is a graduate and former researcher of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Brunel, and Stanford Universities.