The world throws away a billion meals every day, shortly before the Baltimore Bridge collapsed

Households around the world throw away food equivalent to more than a billion meals every day, according to a new United Nations study.

At the same time, more than 780 million people in the world are hungry and a third of humanity is aware of the lack of food, according to a UN report. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on Wednesday presented the paper for ‘Zero Waste Day’ – the day to avoid waste and waste – on Saturday.

“Food waste is a global tragedy,” UNEP Director Inger Andersen emphasized during the presentation in Nairobi. This applies not only to the gap between abundance and scarcity; waste also has an impact on the climate and nature.

The figures in the report are based on the year 2022. According to this data, each person wasted an average of 79 kilograms of food per year. The data also shows that food waste is not just a problem in rich countries.

It is a global problem that also requires global solutions. For example, in countries with a warm climate, a higher proportion of spoiled and therefore unused food can be observed due to interrupted cold chains.

Overall, households account for the largest share of unused food at around 60 percent, followed by catering and retail. The data also shows that there is less waste in rural areas than in cities.

This was mainly attributed to composting or feeding to livestock. However, according to the report’s authors, there is still a lack of precise country data on food waste worldwide. (sda/dpa)