The 74th United Nations General Assembly designated 29 September as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, recognizing the fundamental role that sustainable food production and consumption plays in promoting food security and nutrition. Observance of this day globally marks a clear call to action for all stakeholders in both the public and private sectors to bolster efforts to reduce food loss and waste. This year the day will be marked under unprecedented conditions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sounded a global wake-up call on the need to transform our food systems to ensure food and nutrition security for all and particularly the most vulnerable, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Food loss and waste problem and reduction targets
It is estimated that one third (30%) of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted along the supply chains globally. Proportionately this translates into 1.3 billion metric tons of the total volume of the food produced. It is unacceptable that this amount of food is wasted while 820 million people go hungry globally. Food Losses and Waste (FLW) impacts food security and nutrition in three ways:
- reduction of global and local availability of food;
- a negative impact on food access, for those who face FLW-related economic and income losses, and for consumers due to the contribution of FLW to tightening the food market and raising prices of food; and
- a longer-term effect on food security results from the unsustainable use of natural resources on which the future production of food depends. More at https://uonresearch.org/blog/emergence-of-the-all-africa-postharvest-congress-and-exhibition-creating-awareness-about-food-loss-and-waste-and-sustainable-solutions/
