The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste 2023
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste is celebrated each year on the 29th of September, following this year’s theme “Reducing food loss and waste: Taking Action to Transform Food Systems”. This day is dedicated to recognizing the fundamental role that sustainable food production plays in promoting food security and nutrition.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) “Between six hundred and ninety-one (691) million people to seven hundred and eighty-three (783) million people faced hunger in 2022, with a mid-range of seven hundred and thirty-five (735) million”. “While hunger and food security continue, an estimated thirteen percent (13%) of the world’s food is lost in the supply chain from post-harvest prior to retail with a further seventeen percent (17%) of food is wasted in households, food services and in retail.” (UNEP, 2021).
Food waste can be reduced by avoiding purchasing what is not needed when going shopping, thinking twice before throwing food out and creating a shopping list before going to the supermarket. Reducing food loss and waste would improve agri-food systems and help achieve food security, food safety and food quality, all while delivering on nutritional outcomes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities in our food systems and heightened the need to remedy food loss and waste, both locally and globally. We must be cognizant of the fact that lack of food, hunger and malnutrition affect every country in the world and we are to be blamed for this ordeal. The onus is therefore ours to mitigate and be the source of the solution.