Did you know that one-third of the food produced for human consumption ends up in the trash? At the same time, every four seconds, someone in the world faces starvation. These stark statistics reflect one of modern times’ greatest challenges and tragedies. Food waste and food loss occur when products are lost before reaching consumers. This paradox highlights inefficiencies in food systems and is one of the root causes of food insecurity. Moreover, it prevents nations from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. On the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, take a moment to digest this subject by serving some experts’ opinions on how addressing this issue could drive sustainable global development.
Key Takeaways:
- According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, approximately one-third of global food production is lost or wasted—nearly 1.3 billion tons annually.
- While one-third of global food is lost, one in eleven people worldwide faces hunger.
- Saving just one-quarter of the currently lost food could feed an estimated 870 million people, directly advancing the “Zero Hunger” Sustainable Development Goal.
- Solutions must prioritize the most vulnerable as active participants, not passive recipients, by embedding equity and resilience at the core of food systems across governments, businesses, and communities.
DevelopmentAid: How can addressing the paradox of food waste and hunger lead to a strategic driver of global development?
“By reducing food loss and waste, we can transform a linear system into a circular one, driving progress in three key areas:
- Economic advancement: The reduction of waste is key to the recovery of economic value, with opportunities being created with food rescue, secondary markets for goods that do not meet the required standards, and industries that repurpose scraps into bio-products. For farmers, better infrastructure can reduce post-harvest losses, increasing income. This development is of particular relevance to businesses and consumers, as it has the potential to free up capital.
- Social equity and food security: Redirecting surplus edible food to food banks and communities provides immediate nutritional support to vulnerable populations. This approach has been shown to enhance health and strengthen resilience, while also addressing systemic distribution failures, thus ensuring the fulfilment of the human right to food.
- Environmental sustainability: The issue of wasted food is a significant one, given the considerable land, water, and energy resources that are wasted as a result. The process of decomposition in landfills generates methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas. Preventative measures are key to conserving resources, reducing emissions, and alleviating ecosystem pressure.”
“Addressing the paradox of wasting nearly a third of all food while 735 million people face hunger is more than an ethical imperative; it is a strategic driver for global development. Transforming our approach to food loss and waste unlocks a powerful multiplier effect across the SDGs. Economically, recovering even a fraction of the over $1 trillion worth of food lost or wasted annually can boost incomes for smallholder farmers and create new jobs in processing, logistics, and secondary markets. From a food security perspective, saving just one-quarter of the food currently lost could feed an estimated 870 million people, directly tackling SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). Environmentally, food loss and food waste (FLW) accounts for a staggering 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing it is therefore one of the most effective actions for combating climate change (SDG 13) and easing pressure on our planet’s land and water resources. By reframing FLW reduction as a core development strategy, we can simultaneously build more resilient economies, achieve food security, and advance our climate goals.”
“Although food abundance and hunger are on the same planet, they are not geographically interconnected, so we can’t advocate for a simplistic solution and shift food from excess land to hunger land. The secret is to enhance the techniques of food harvesting to reduce food loss, promote food transformation, lift trade obstacles, apply tax cuts, encourage actors on the ground and ask the recipients about their preferences, respecting their culture and traditions. Finding solutions should really respect the recipients and be in line with the current situation on the ground. Some agencies tried to promote alternative crops, neglecting that the substitute needs more water than existing crops in an already water-scarce environment. On the other hand, a good example was the enhancement of the productivity of an existing crop: introducing enhanced types of wheat doubled the productivity and helped in reducing malnutrition and hunger. Science alone isn’t enough, filling hangars of crops isn’t enough, but the dialogue with the recipients will lead the way to sustainable solutions and global development throughout the value chain, from the field to the retailer, including harvesting, transportation, storage, packaging and distribution. It’s a reachable goal but needs a collective way of thinking and acting together.”
“Reducing food loss and waste must be reframed as a lever for global development, not only as an environmental or efficiency challenge. Tackling the paradox of abundance and hunger means recognizing that redirecting even a fraction of the 30% of food never consumed could strengthen food security, lower pressure on natural resources, and advance multiple SDGs simultaneously. Achieving this requires an agrifood-system wide approach: policies that incentivize redistribution and circular economies; markets that value sustainability over volume; and behavioral change across supply chains and households.”
“Solutions for FLW involve navigating between scale, speed, equity, cost, and complexity. Systems approaches blending results-based financing can amplify FLW impacts by encouraging cross-sector collaboration between farmers, processors, retailers, tech, consumers, public authorities, and (vitally) by finance.
Success factors here:
- Focus on whole-system interventions using foresight to design collective benefits that minimize holistic risk.
- Understand leverage points where most differences are possible.
- Balance incentives first and regulation second.
- Use results-based financing to ensure measurement, transparency, and accountability – as well as unlocking innovation.
‘Pay-for-performance’ practices reward verifiable waste reductions and attract private solutions: e.g.
- A region launches a $5M ‘Food Waste Reduction Bond’ financed by investors and if FLW is cut by 30% in 3 years (verified independently), the investors are repaid with interest funded by savings in waste disposal, avoided emissions costs, and economic multipliers.
- A city’s new $1M public loan guarantee fund mobilizes $10M in private sector loans to food-saving tech startups or other commercially advantageous developments like smart food labeling trials aimed at cutting supermarket waste.
Such FLW results ease inflationary food prices, strengthen food security, and meet climate targets – all at once.”
DevelopmentAid: What long-term systemic shifts are needed to ensure that no food is wasted while millions still go hungry?
“A multi-sectoral approach is essential to reduce food loss and waste (FLW). It is incumbent upon governments to incorporate binding national FLW reduction targets into climate, economic, and food security strategies. Standardizing date labels is critical to prevent unnecessary discarding. This should be done to distinguish between “use by” (safety) and “best before” (quality). Incentives in the form of “Good Samaritan” laws and tax benefits should be considered to encourage donations, while measures to prevent waste, such as bans on organic landfill and the introduction of taxes should be explored. The private sector must adopt circular business models by creating markets for imperfect produce and investing in upcycling technologies. Enhancing supply chain collaboration through AI and blockchain can optimize supply-demand matching and minimize overproduction. Finally, significant investment in infrastructure—particularly in developing regions—for modern storage, transportation, and cold chains is vital to prevent post-harvest losses.”
“Ensuring that no food is wasted requires a profound, long-term systemic transformation that moves beyond awareness campaigns to rewire our food systems fundamentally. This involves coordinated shifts in three key areas. First, policies must create an enabling environment. Governments should invest in critical post-harvest infrastructure, such as cold storage and transportation, especially in developing nations where up to 40% of food is lost before reaching the market. Standardizing food date labeling (“use by” vs. “best by”) and introducing tax incentives for food donations can also drastically reduce waste at the retail and consumer levels. Second, markets need to be restructured to prioritize efficiency and inclusivity. This means strengthening supply chains to match supply with demand better, creating robust secondary markets for imperfect-looking produce, and scaling up innovations like surplus redistribution apps that connect businesses with food banks. Finally, these shifts must be reinforced by a change in behavior. We need to foster a societal culture that values food, moving away from the pursuit of cosmetic perfection and over-provisioning. For corporations, this means embedding circular principles and transparently reporting on waste, while consumers must be empowered with knowledge on better meal planning and food storage.”
“I believe in the role of communication in changing the behavior of consumers towards food surplus, the shape of products (fruits and vegetables), the importance of awareness on such topics, starting by the decision to buy a certain product, and a specific quantity, to consuming it or transforming it (making jam from nearly-expired fruits). Restaurants and supermarkets expect tax reductions and VAT cuts of their unsold products so they can spare them from the dustbin, distribute them through food banks, or just sell them at reduced prices. A good example is the mandatory agreement between supermarkets and local NGOs in France which obliged each supermarket to identify, beforehand, the recipients of their food surplus, especially fruits and vegetables which represent more than 35% of wasted food. Another good example from the Netherlands is the policy of the empty plate in open-food restaurants: if you leave anything on the plate you will pay per consumed item, which is higher than the original offer. Another good example at school cantinas in France and Tunisia was in collecting bread leftovers and measuring them, recording the positive impact of behavior change through small steps, like taking less bread than usual.”
“Crucially, solutions must prioritize the most vulnerable as active participants, not passive recipients. By embedding equity and resilience at the core of food systems, governments, businesses, and communities can ensure that surplus feeds people—not landfills—while empowering marginalized groups through inclusion in redistribution networks, local innovation, and decision-making. Aligning agricultural, trade, and social protection policies with waste reduction targets, while fostering accountability and innovation in business practices, can transform food loss and waste reduction into a strategic driver of inclusive, resilient development—one that builds a fairer, more sustainable future for all.”
“Reducing FLW boosts food security, reduces economic burdens, and is a highly cost-effective climate solution that can easily appeal across political divides. It enhances food availability without expanding production while saving households, businesses, and governments money. FLW can also often worsen global greenhouse gas emissions, so cutting it offers fast, low-cost wins compared to many climate strategies. A ‘de-risk, demonstrate, and leverage’ strategy can be used in all countries. This optimizes proven opportunities by committing smaller amounts of public funds to mobilise (via de-risking) larger amounts of private capital – for investing in projects that demonstrate FLW profitability via verified performance outcomes and that catalyze broader change. Systems approaches are another key success factor of all FLW strategies. This tackles root causes like supply chain inefficiencies and misaligned incentives, while results-based financing (e.g. FLW impact bonds) ensures accountability by tying investor returns to measurable outcomes. These tools drive innovation and value-for-money. Strategic messaging: Frame FLW reduction as one of the cheapest, fastest, and most popular ways to ease inflationary food prices, strengthen food security, and meet climate targets – all at once.”
Today, September 29, on the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, we highlight one of the sector’s most urgent challenges: the paradox of simultaneous food waste and hunger. Tackling this issue is a strategic driver of global development, requiring valuable and strong expertise. For candidates looking for jobs in this sector, DevelopmentAid’s Individual Professional Membership serves them all necessary resources in one plate. Access to more than 4,000 openings in international development, tenders, and grants for individuals, increased exposure and visibility, information about the largest donors and organizations in the sector – are served in just a few clicks with minimum time and resources invested. By giving it a bite, candidates can explore how quickly resources transform into opportunities.
