UN: "Turn lower levels of food waste into a New Year's resolution"

The UN food agency, FAO, has prepared a new New Year’s resolution for us all: waste less food. Europeans apparently waste 88 million tons of food annually. On a global scale, it amounts to 1.3 billion tons.

A third of food production is wasted

A third of the global food production goes to waste every year, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization estimates. That is about 1.3 billion tons of food. That is why the agency has called upon the population, during this holiday season, to pay close attention to what is wasted, but to keep that in mind for the entire year. “The holiday season has become a synonym for over-eating and food waste in some parts of the world”, the FAO states.

“Make not wasting food your New Year’s resolution”, it added, launching its own hashtag, namely #NotWasting. It is not merely about a waste of food, but also about a “waste of labour, water, energy, resources and other means used to create the food”.

There is a dispute about how much we actually waste. The UN agency says Belgians waste about 3.6 million tons every year, which is 345 kilograms per individual. The Flemish government has its own report, which mentions 32.7 kilograms of food waste per individual. Supermarkets also add 5 % to the overall food waste. The FAO has also created a list with six actual tips to help consumers’ food waste.