India cannot afford to waste the food it works so hard to produce. Yet as climate shocks disrupt agriculture, food prices remain a concern and pressure on land and water intensifies, significant quantities of food continue to be lost or wasted before their full value is realised. Globally, around 13 per cent of food is lost between harvest and retail, while another 19 per cent is wasted at retail, food service and household levels. The consequences extend beyond the food itself: the land, water, energy, labour and capital invested in producing it are also lost, while food loss and waste contribute an estimated 8–10 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions.  

The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste on 29th September is therefore an opportunity to ask a more consequential question: what happens to food after we stop calling it food? SDG Target 12.3 calls for halving per-capita food waste at retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses across production and supply chains by 2030. Meeting this ambition requires action well beyond the household bin. Losses occur during harvesting, storage, transportation, processing and marketing, while food that is no longer suitable for human consumption can become a climate liability when poorly managed. 

TERI's work in Circular Economy and Waste Management, offers an important perspective on this often-overlooked part of the food system. Over the decades, TERI has helped establish a critical link between waste management and climate action, demonstrating that how organic waste is handled can determine whether it becomes an emissions burden or a recoverable resource. Its work on greenhouse-gas emissions from India's waste sector has highlighted the mitigation potential of diverting organic waste from landfills, alongside methane capture and utilisation. This is particularly significant for food waste: when biodegradable material is mixed with other waste and left to decompose under unmanaged conditions, it can generate methane; when segregated and treated through appropriate biological processes, the same material can yield biogas (a source of energy), nutrients and other useful outputs. The policy imperative is however to move beyond disposal-led waste management towards systems that prevent avoidable food waste, followed by segregation at source what remains and recover its energy and material value.

This changes the way Target 12.3 should be understood. Prevention must remain the priority, through better storage, transportation, processing, market access and consumption practices. But where food can no longer remain in the human food chain, its residual value should be retained wherever safely possible. Depending on its nature, this can include animal feed, composting, anaerobic digestion, biogas, biofertilizers and other productive uses. The objective is not merely to dispose of waste more efficiently, but to keep resources circulating for longer and reduce the emissions associated with their loss. 

TERI's experience also demonstrates why this transition requires more than technology. Its work on reducing short-lived climate pollutants from the municipal solid-waste sector has examined methane and black-carbon emissions and explored low-carbon waste-management pathways with Indian cities. Such work illustrates the importance of connecting technical solutions with segregation, institutional capacity, local implementation and policy. Food waste cannot be addressed effectively if it is mixed with other waste and sent into a system designed primarily for disposal. 

This is also where higher education institutions (HEIs) can play a consequential role. India's transition to resource-efficient food systems will require professionals who can connect agriculture, waste, climate, technology, economics and policy. Universities can turn SDG 12.3 into applied learning through curricula, field research, campus audits, innovation challenges and community projects, enabling students to analyse food-waste flows and develop practical solutions with local stakeholders. Such engagement can build skills for emerging circular-economy sectors, from resource recovery and biogas to sustainable supply chains and waste analytics. Education, therefore, must move beyond awareness to building the capacity to redesign systems and retain resource value. 

India also needs better data to identify where losses occur, and which interventions will have the greatest impact. Strengthening measurement across commodities and stages of the value chain can help target infrastructure, technology, investment and policy more effectively. 

As India moves towards 2030, the food-loss agenda should therefore be viewed through three connected priorities: prevent what can be prevented, recover value from what cannot, and build the knowledge and skills required to make both possible. The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste should remind us that food does not cease to have value simply because it has left the human food chain. What changes is the form that value can take.