International Day of Awareness of Food Waste (IDAFLW).

(IDAFLW)

Rome [ENA] The United Nations General Assembly designated 29 September as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). When food is wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food -, including water, land, energy, labour and capital – go to waste. In addition, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, causing climate change.

Actions are required globally and locally to increase the use of produced food. The introduction of technologies, innovative solutions (including e-commerce platforms for marketing, retractable mobile food processing systems), new ways of working and good practices to manage food quality and reduce food loss and waste are key to realising this transformative change. The goal is to raise awareness to the importance of the problem and its possible solutions at all levels, and to promote global efforts and collective action towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 , which targets to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030, and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chains.

Globally, around 14 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail. Important quantities are also wasted in retail and at the consumption level. Attention and Actions of all, from food producers, to food supply chain stakeholders, to food industries, till retailers and consumers are needed to reduce food loss and waste. There is no room for food loss and waste in this time of crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call to rethink the way of producing, handling and wasting food. Reducing food losses and waste provides a powerful means to strengthen the food systems.

Innovation, technologies and infrastructure are vital to increasing the efficiency of food systems and to reducing food losses and waste. Public interventions should pursue the facilitation of investments in food losses and waste reduction by private actors especially at this critical time. It’s important to shape innovative business models, with the participation of the private sector and new approaches are needed to finance them, to stop food loss and food waste. To monitor SDG Target 12.3, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has created the Food Loss Index (FLI). The focus of the indicator is on percentages of food removed from the supply chain.

The FLI monitors changes in these percentages over time, relative to a base period currently set at 2015, in order to track progress against SDG Target 12.3. FAO’s current work on measurement is critical to tracking progress on reducing food losses against the Global Food Loss Indicator, of 14 percent. When reductions in food loss occur close to the farm, they are most effective in addressing food insecurity and in alleviating stress on land and water.

When reductions in food waste occur downstream in the supply chain and at the consumer level they are key to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The largest improvements in food security are likely to occur by reducing food losses in the early stages of the supply chain, especially on-farm and at harvest in countries with high levels of food insecurity. Nutrient loss due to quantitative and qualitative food loss and waste may represent a missed opportunity to reduce malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.