Daily Dose / Sep 28, 2026 / Food Waste

The Uneaten Fifth

Between the field and the fork, the world discards a staggering share of what it grows. Most of it isn't lost on farms or in supermarkets. It happens in our own kitchens.

1.05billion tonnes

of food was wasted by shops, restaurants and homes in 2022. That is 19% of all food available to consumers, about 132 kg per person, and households alone binned over a billion meals a day. UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024

01 · The chain

Two leaks, from field to bin

Food leaves the system in two ways. It is lost before it reaches a shop shelf, and wasted once it does.

Schematic: stage spacing is not to scale. The two percentages use different denominators (food produced vs. food available to consumers), so they should not simply be added together.

02 · Who wastes it

Six tonnes in ten go to waste at home

Of the 1.05 billion tonnes wasted in 2022, households account for 60%, food service 28% and retail 12%.

Mt = million tonnes, includes inedible parts (peels, bones, shells). Source: UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024, 2022 estimates.

03 · Per plate

132 kg per person, every year

Split across every person on Earth, and waste turns out to be far from a rich-world habit.

0 kg132 kg / person / year

79 home

36 service

householdfood serviceretail

UNEP 2024 global per-capita averages, 2022.

Not a rich-country problem

7 kg

That is the entire gap in average household food waste per person between high-income, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries. UNEP also found that hotter countries tend to waste more at home, where refrigeration and cold chains are thinner.

04 · The trend

A case study: the UK's stalled progress

Britain has measured its food waste since 2007. It cut deep early, then flat-lined far from its goal of halving waste by 2030.

UK food waste in kg per person per year, post-farm-gate, including inedible parts. Latest year: 2022 for households, 2021 for other sectors. Goal = 50% of the 2007 baseline (UK Food Data Project / SDG 12.3). Source: WRAP, Food Surplus and Waste in the UK: Key Facts, July 2025. Global per-capita trends can't yet be tracked reliably.

05 · The stakes

What the bin really costs

Wasted food carries everything it took to grow it: land, water, fuel, and emissions.

8–10%

of global greenhouse-gas emissions come from food loss and waste combined.

UNEP 2024

783 M

people faced hunger in 2022, the same year a fifth of consumer food was thrown out.

UNEP 2024 / FAO SOFI 2023

≈28%

of the world's agricultural land, about 1.4 billion hectares, grows food that is never eaten.

FAO 2013

250 km³

of irrigation (blue) water goes into wasted food each year, about three times the volume of Lake Geneva.

FAO 2013

$1 trn

in direct economic cost each year, plus about $700 bn in environmental and $900 bn in social costs.

FAO 2014 · 2007 data

£17.5 bn

is what the edible food wasted by UK households is worth each year, the equivalent of about 3 meals per person per week.

WRAP 2025

06 · What you can do

Small habits, at scale

Shop against a plan. Check the fridge before you shop, write a list, and buy loose produce in the amounts you'll actually use.
Read the date right. "Use by" is about safety. "Best before" is about quality, and food is often fine after it.
Keep the fridge cold and the freezer busy. Freeze bread, leftovers and ripe fruit before they turn.
First in, first out. Move older items to the front, and cook from what's already there.
Separate what's left. Food-waste collection or composting keeps it out of landfill, where it releases methane.
Ask for measurement. Countries and companies that measure their waste are the ones that cut it. Back SDG 12.3 reporting.

Why it matters: cutting waste is one of the rare climate fixes that saves money instead of costing it, and most of it is in our own hands.

Sources & notes

UNEP, Food Waste Index Report 2024 (with WRAP), 2022 data: 1.05 bn t wasted; 19% of food available to consumers; 132 kg/capita; households 631 Mt (79 kg/cap, 60%), food service 290 Mt (36 kg, 28%), retail 131 Mt (17 kg, 12%); 7 kg income-group gap; ≥1 bn meals/day wasted by households; 8–10% of global GHG emissions; 783 million people affected by hunger.
FAO, SDG indicator 12.3.1a Food Loss Index: 13.2% of food lost after harvest and before retail, 2021.
FAO, State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023: hunger estimate cited by UNEP.
WRAP, Food Surplus and Waste in the UK: Key Facts, July 2025: per-capita totals 141.7 kg (2007), 109.5 (2018), 111.0 (2021/22); households 90.9, 66.5, 70.8 kg; household edible waste worth £17.5 bn; ~3 meals per person per week.
FAO, Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources, 2013: ~250 km³ blue water; ~1.4 bn ha (~28% of agricultural land); 3.3 Gt CO₂e (2007 base year).
FAO, Food Wastage Footprint: Full-Cost Accounting, 2014: ~US$1 trn economic, ~$700 bn environmental, ~$900 bn social costs per year.

Notes: The supply-chain strip is schematic, and its stage spacing is not proportional. "Lost" (FAO) and "wasted" (UNEP) shares use different bases and are not additive. The FAO footprint figures rely on 2007 data and are best read as orders of magnitude. The UK "halving goal" line is computed as 50% of WRAP's 2007 baseline, drawn as a straight dashed path; it is not a forecast.