The first Food Waste Index Report was published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on 4 March 2021.

The report provides insights into the scale of food waste and a methodology that enables countries to measure baselines and track progress in meeting the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3.

Key findings indicate that:

• Around 931 million tonnes of food waste was generated in 2019, 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail;
• 17% of food available at consumer level is wasted;
• Household per capita food waste generation is found to be significant in nearly all countries that have measured it, and broadly similar across country income groups;
• Previous estimates of consumer food waste significantly underestimated its scale.

© UNEP