(VOVWORLD) -Households on every continent wasted more than 1 billion meals a day in 2022, while 783 million people were affected by hunger, according to the Global Food Waste Index, published by the UN Environment Agency (UNEP) in collaboration with WRAP.
 Illustrative image (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) |
The Index, released Wednesday, says 1 billion tons of food went to waste in 2022, nearly 20% of all the food produced. This wasted food was worth more than 1 trillion USD. On an average day 1 billion meals were thrown away. 60% of the waste happened at the household level, with food services responsible for 28% and retail 12%.
Food waste is a global tragedy, said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, adding that millions will go hungry today as food is wasted around the world. The international community is racing against time to prevent a humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, where millions of people are falling into famine because of the Hamas-Israel conflict.
Director of the World Food Program (WFP) in Palestine, Matthew Hollingworth, said: “There is nowhere else in the world where so many people face imminent famine. Here in Gaza City, we're at the epicenter of the crisis in the Gaza strip. Today I've met so many people who are angry and tired and despairing because their children go to sleep hungry every night.”
Food waste is also a challange to the fight against climate change. According to experts, greenhouse gas emissions from food waste are 5 times more than emissions from the aviation industry, accounting for 8-10% of global emissions each year, which is slightly less than the annual emissions of China and the US.