What is food loss and food waste?

What is food loss and food waste?

Food loss and food waste is simply food that doesn’t get eaten or used. Food loss can happen because food spoils or gets damaged before it reaches stores shelves or our homes. Food can be lost at the farm during harvest due to drought or storms. Food can get thrown away after crops become spoiled by insects, rodents, birds and bacteria. Food can also get damaged by poor handling during transportation, processing and distribution.

Food waste happens when edible food is thrown away. Food that has reached its expiration date or is considered unappealing often gets tossed away by consumers, restaurants, hotels and grocery stores. Most of the time, food waste ends up in landfills with other garbage, where it can take weeks or months to decompose.

Why is food loss and food waste a problem?

Many people don’t give much thought when they throw away leftovers or that broccoli that’s been in the fridge for over a week, but that wasted food adds up.

Globally, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food are lost or wasted every year. That staggering amount accounts for about one-third of all food that’s produced worldwide that never gets eaten."

The production of food requires resources like water, energy and land. When food goes to waste, so do those resources. Food waste is contributing to climate change too. When food is left to rot in landfills, it produces methane which is responsible for roughly 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Millions of people around the world are undernourished. Safe and nourishing food that gets thrown away could help feed hungry people and reduce food insecurity.

What can be done?

Food loss and waste can be prevented. By reducing food waste and promoting sustainable practices throughout the food supply chain, we can minimize the negative impact on the environment, conserve resources and ensure better food security for all.

How Food Loss and Waste Collaborative is playing a role

Researchers, faculty and students at UC Davis are taking on food loss and waste from the farm to the kitchen. The Food Loss and Waste Collaborative is an interdisciplinary research program focused on developing solutions and innovative new approaches to reduce food loss and waste throughout the food life cycle, help the environment and get food to the people that need it.