IDB and partners launch platform to fight food loss and waste

Latin America and the Caribbean loses or wastes more than 127 million tons of food a year—an annual average of 223 kilos per person. This phenomenon is occurring in a region where nearly 42 million people suffer from acute undernutrition, which is just another word for hunger.

In some of the region’s food groups, such as fruits and vegetables, losses exceed 50 percent. At the consumer level, particularly at homes, about 28 percent of food is wasted.

The #SinDesperdicio platform, launched by the Inter-American Development Bank, seeks to leverage civil society as well as private and public sector efforts to tackle this problem.

The platform includes leading companies from the food and technology sectors, such as Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, Dow Chemical, the FEMSA Foundation, Bimbo Group, IBM, and Oxxo. Other strategic partners include the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the Global Food Banking Network, the Consumer Goods Forum, and the World Resources Institute.

In order to reduce food loss and waste, the platform will promote four areas of activity: innovative projects, national and local public policies, knowledge generation, and responsible consumer habits.

Original source: IDB
Published on 12 October 2018