How is KR 3.5 Tracking?
A staggering 40 percent of the world’s food is wasted each year. Meanwhile, more than 800 million people worldwide are undernourished.
In lower-income nations, food waste is generally due to improper storage, substandard equipment and packaging, bad weather, or safety considerations. Most waste occurs early in the supply chain, with food rotting before it can be harvested or spoiling en route to buyers.
In the U.S., by contrast, consumers simply throw out more than a third of their food. That’s almost 145 billion meals’ worth of food or approximately 1.8 percent of the U.S. GDP. Misleading food label expiration dates prompt premature discards of safe and edible items. The waste is compounded by food items rejected at the retail level, often for superficial cosmetic reasons.
Wealthy countries must standardize expiration labeling and public awareness campaigns. New technologies that lengthen shelf life can help too. We also need more effective waste-reduction partnerships among retailers, supply chains, and food banks.
We currently source data for this KR from ReFed, which measures food waste in the U.S. If you know of global food waste data that’s updated annually, please reach out to act@speedandscale.com.