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FOOD WASTE RATES

Wasted Food Worldwide Rates
based on Agriculture, Postharvest, Processing, Distribution, Consumption
​

Every year some 2.9 trillion pounds of food -about a third of all that the world produces- never get consumed.

Along the supply chain fruits and vegetables are lost or wasted at higher rates than other foods.

Easily bruised and vulnerable to temperature swings en route from farm to table,

they’re also usually the first to get tossed at home.

​

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Food Waste at Producers, Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Food Service,
and Retailers Level
​

 The sectors contributing the most to food waste are households (47 million tonnes ± 4 million tonnes)

and processing (17 million tonnes ± 13 million tonnes).

These two sectors account for 72 percent of EU food waste, although there is considerable uncertainty

around the estimate for the processing sector compared to all the other sectors.

This is due to only four MS providing information of sufficiently high quality.

In addition, the differences in the normalized food waste amounts between the countries were great.

Of the remaining 28 percent of food waste, 11 million tonnes (12%) come from food service,

9 million tonnes (10%) come from primary production and 5 million tonnes (5%) come from wholesale and retail.

North America and Oceania

Industrial
Asia

Sub-
Saharan
Africa

North Africa, West & Central Asia

South and Southeast Asia

Latin America

Europe

34.3 %
34.7 %
34.3 %
19 %
30.2 %
19.8 %
25.5 %
Cereals
Roots and Tubers
52.2 %
60.2 %
48.2 %
44.2 %
32.8%
40.8 %
39.4 %
19.6 %
20.5 %
17.7 %
27.7 %
29.4 %
27 %
19.4 %
Oilseeds and Pulses
45.7 %
52.3 %
36.5%
51.6 %
55.3 %
51.4 %
54.4 %
Fruits and Vegetables
Meat
21.9 %
22.4 %
22.4 %
26.9 %
22.6%
19.8 %
20.5 %
31.4 %
49.8 %
35.9 %
32.8 %
30.2 %
34.6 %
29.6 %
Fish and Seafood
12.2 %
19.8%
10.8 %
24.9 %
19.9 %
20.8 %
21.5 %
Dairy Products
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