About 13% of the world's food is lost after harvest before it reaches shops, and almost a fifth of the food available to consumers is wasted in shops, restaurants and homes, using up land, water and money and contributing 8 to 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Updated October 13, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Out of every 100 kg of food available to consumers, how many kg are wasted in shops, restaurants and homes?
1.05 billion tonnes
Food wasted in retail, food service and households
Almost one-fifth of the food available to consumers, or 132 kg per person, including inedible parts. Households accounted for 60%, food service for 28% and retail for 12%.
Data year 2022. Source: UN Environment Programme, 2024
13.3%
Share of food lost between harvest and retail
Modelled FAO estimate, slightly above the 13.0% of 2015. Losses were highest for fruit and vegetables (25.4%) and in sub-Saharan Africa (23.0%).
Data year 2023. Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026
8–10%
Share of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions
Contribution of food loss and waste to all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, averaged over 2010 to 2016 (medium confidence). The IPCC also estimates that 25–30% of all food produced is lost or wasted.
Data year 2016. Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019
Modelled FAO estimates from the UN SDG Global Database; every second year of the annual series is shown. FAO revises the whole series as production data and country estimates are updated, and the UN SDG Report 2026 attributes the small rise since 2015 mainly to such revisions rather than to a clear change on the ground. There is no comparable global time series for food waste yet.
SDG target 12.3 calls for halving per capita food waste at retail and consumer level and for reducing food losses by 2030. The share of food lost after harvest was 13.3% in 2023 against 13.0% in 2015, which the UN reads as stagnation or even slight deterioration. For food waste, only a limited number of national datasets are statistically suitable for tracking progress, so it cannot yet be said whether waste per person is falling worldwide.
Sub-Saharan Africa loses the largest share of food after harvest: 23.0% in 2023, up from 22.1% in 2015 and more than twice the 10.0% lost in Northern America and Europe.
Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026The least developed countries lost 19.9% of their food after harvest in 2023 and small island developing states 19.0%, both slightly more than in 2015 and well above the world average of 13.3%.
Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026Post-harvest losses cut the incomes of an estimated 470 million small-scale farmers by 15%. UNEP and FAO estimate that the lack of effective refrigeration alone leads to the loss of 526 million tonnes of food, 12% of global production.
Source: UNEP and FAO, 12 November 2022, 2022Household food waste is not only a problem of rich countries: average waste per person differs by just 7 kg a year between high-, upper-middle- and lower-middle-income countries. Hotter countries appear to waste more per person at home, while rural areas generally waste less than towns and cities.
Source: UN Environment Programme, 2024Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
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Values in kg per person per year.
Estimated household food waste, including inedible parts, for the latest year available per country; this is currently 2022 everywhere, but the underlying studies date from different years. Many values are extrapolated from other countries rather than measured (which is why dozens of countries share almost the same value, around 89–92 kg) and most are rated low or very low confidence; EU figures come from national reports to Eurostat, and zeros for a few small territories should be read as gaps, so compare countries with caution.
Source: UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 and Eurostat, via UN SDG Global Database and Our World in Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from Our World in Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
LowThe global share of food lost after harvest has not fallen since 2015, and there is no global trend yet for food waste. Japan shows what sustained effort can achieve: by 2023 it reported 58% less food waste in food businesses and 46% less in households than in 2000.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateBetter harvesting, storage, cooling and packaging, redistribution of surplus, standard measurement methods and consumer campaigns are well known, and the IPCC lists technical options from harvest to retail and education. Less proven is how to cut household waste lastingly, since most intervention studies are short and rely on self-reports, and how to make cold chains affordable for small producers.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowAs of 2022 only 21 countries had included food loss or waste in their national climate plans, and in 2024 only four G20 countries and the EU had food waste estimates good enough to track progress to 2030.
Household waste data have grown to 194 data points in 93 countries, but data for retail and food service remain sparse and only a limited number of datasets are suitable for tracking the target. Food loss figures are largely modelled.
The global food loss rate has hardly moved since 2015 and there is no global trend for food waste. New binding targets in the EU and long-running national programmes such as Japan's and the UK's show movement in some places, but not yet a global shift.
Food goes missing at every step between the field and the plate. Food loss happens after harvest or slaughter and before food reaches the shop: on farms, in storage, during transport and in processing. FAO estimates that 13.3% of the world's food was lost this way in 2023, slightly more than in 2015. Food waste happens in shops, restaurants, canteens and homes: about 1.05 billion tonnes in 2022, almost one-fifth of all food available to consumers, and 60% of it in households. Taken together, the IPCC assesses that 25 to 30% of all food produced is lost or wasted.
Losses after harvest are highest in sub-Saharan Africa and in the least developed countries, and for small-scale farmers without cooling or storage, spoiled produce means lost income. Waste in homes, by contrast, is found at similar levels in rich and middle-income countries. The consequences are shared: food loss and waste contributed 8 to 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 to 2016, takes up the equivalent of almost a third of the world's agricultural land and costs more than USD 1 trillion a year. Food that is saved would not automatically reach people who go hungry, but the waste happens while hundreds of millions of people do not have enough to eat.
SDG target 12.3 aims, by 2030, to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and to reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses. Its indicator has two parts, with FAO responsible for losses and UNEP for waste:
Food loss (indicator 12.3.1a)
The share of edible crop and livestock products that leave the supply chain completely after harvest or slaughter and before retail: on the farm, in storage, in transport and in processing. Losses before harvest are not counted, and food that goes to animal feed or industrial uses is not treated as lost. Country figures are built on ten key commodities from five food groups.
Food waste (indicator 12.3.1b)
Food, together with its inedible parts such as bones, rinds and fruit stones, that is removed from the human food supply in retail, food service (restaurants, canteens, schools, hospitals) and households. It counts whatever the destination, from landfill and sewer to compost and anaerobic digestion, and is reported in kilograms per person per year.
Measured or modelled
Few countries report measured losses, so most food loss figures come from an FAO statistical model. For food waste, countries without their own data receive estimates extrapolated from countries that have data, and UNEP's national household estimates carry confidence ratings from very low to high. Only direct national measurement in each sector is robust enough to track change over time.
What the numbers miss
Neither indicator covers food left unharvested in the field, and there are no global loss estimates for fish. Waste figures include inedible parts, so not all of the waste could have been eaten, and differing national methods make many country figures hard to compare.
What works
Governments, food businesses and charities agree a shared reduction target, measure food waste the same way and act together across the supply chain and in homes. In the UK such public-private partnerships helped cut household food waste per person by more than a quarter between 2007 and 2018.
Limits
Results come mainly from a few high-income countries with long-running programmes and good data, and voluntary agreements only cover the companies that sign up. When UNEP reported in 2024, only four G20 countries and the EU had estimates suitable for tracking progress to 2030.
What works
Improved harvesting, on-farm storage, transport, packaging and refrigeration keep produce from spoiling before it reaches market. In a pilot in India described by UNEP and FAO, an improved cold chain cut losses of kiwi fruit by 76%.
Limits
Cold chains need capital, reliable electricity, skills and maintenance that many rural areas lack. The food cold chain already causes around 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, counting equipment, refrigerants and food lost through poor refrigeration, so new capacity has to be efficient and run on clean energy.
What works
Unsold food that is still safe can go to food banks and charities instead of the bin. Since 2016 French law has required supermarkets larger than 400 m² to offer unsold food to a charity under a donation agreement, and it forbids making edible unsold food unfit to eat. Company donations to three of France's main food aid networks rose from about 30,000 tonnes in 2014 to about 77,000 tonnes in 2017.
Limits
An evaluation for the French agriculture ministry found that donations were already rising before the law and grew more slowly afterwards, and that most food collected from shops had less than 48 hours left before its date. Shops cause a much smaller share of France's food waste than households, and redistribution passes surplus on rather than preventing it.
What works
Households produce about 60% of all food waste, so information and practical help on planning meals, storing food, using leftovers and understanding date labels target the largest share. Confusing 'use by' dates, which concern safety, with 'best before' dates, which concern quality, is a known reason why edible food is thrown away.
Limits
A 2024 systematic review of before-and-after studies, all from high-income countries, found mostly short-term reductions, often measured through people's own reports rather than by weighing waste, and little evidence on whether the effect lasts. Lasting national reductions have been documented mainly in a few countries with long-running programmes and good measurement.
What works
Inedible parts and food that can no longer be eaten can be composted or turned into biogas in anaerobic digesters, or fed to animals where rules allow, instead of rotting in landfills. Food waste accounts for up to 14% of global methane emissions.
Limits
This cuts emissions but not the amount of food wasted: under the SDG food waste indicator, food sent to compost or anaerobic digestion still counts as waste. Separate collection and treatment plants cost money and depend on households sorting their waste.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Small cold rooms placed in markets and farming areas let farmers and traders keep fresh produce for longer. A UNEP and FAO report described 54 ColdHubs units in Nigeria that prevented the spoilage of 42,024 tonnes of food and raised the household incomes of 5,240 farmers, retailers and wholesalers by 50%. These figures are reported by the programme, and costs, energy supply and maintenance remain obstacles to wider use.
In 2025 the EU amended its Waste Framework Directive to set legally binding food waste reduction targets that member states must meet by 2030, one for processing and manufacturing and a per-person target for retail, restaurants, food services and households combined, measured against 2021–2023 levels. The targets are less ambitious than the SDG aim of halving waste, and a review due by the end of 2027 will consider targets for 2035.
Clearer date labelling is being promoted to reduce confusion between 'use by' and 'best before', and some retailers and cities, for example in Japan, label or discount food that is close to its date so it is sold rather than thrown away. How much these changes reduce waste overall, rather than moving it from shop to household, has rarely been measured.
A Food Waste Breakthrough launched at the COP30 climate summit in 2025 aims to halve food waste by 2030 and cut the methane it produces, and some cities now set their own reduction targets. Few countries have yet written food loss and waste into their national climate plans, and results are still to be measured.
Knowledge gap
When UNEP reported in 2024, only four G20 countries (Australia, Japan, the UK and the USA) and the EU had food waste estimates suitable for tracking progress to 2030. Without measurement, governments and companies cannot see whether their efforts work.
Technology gap
Fruit and vegetables, the most perishable foods, have the highest loss rate, and it rose from 23.2% in 2015 to 25.4% in 2023. Affordable, low-emission cooling and storage remain out of reach for many producers in hot climates and in areas with unreliable electricity.
Coordination gap
Food loss and waste generate 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet as of 2022 only 21 countries had included reducing them in their national climate plans.
Coordination gap
Food is lost and wasted by farmers, traders, processors, retailers, caterers and households, and the two halves of the target are tracked by different UN agencies with different indicators. Agriculture, waste, food safety and climate policies are often run by separate ministries, so no single actor owns the problem.
Implementation gap
Safe surplus food often goes unused because it reaches charities too close to its date or because they cannot collect it often enough. In France, 55% of food aid organisations surveyed named logistics as a limit, and a survey cited in the same evaluation found that 47% of shops had no daily collection.
Knowledge gap
Households produce about 60% of food waste, but there is little robust evidence on which interventions reduce it lastingly across a whole country. The clearest national reductions, in Japan and the UK, came from programmes sustained over many years.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Which combinations of campaigns, product design, pack sizes, date labels and local services reduce household food waste over years rather than weeks, and how can this be measured without relying on what people say they throw away?
If less food is wasted, how much do emissions, land use and food prices actually change once production adjusts and households spend the money saved on other things, and does any of the saved food reach people who are food insecure?
Which cooling, storage and processing models are affordable for small-scale farmers and traders in hot climates without reliable electricity, and which business and ownership models keep them running?
How can countries measure food loss and household food waste directly and cheaply enough to replace modelled and extrapolated estimates, including for fish and for food left unharvested in the field?
Check what you already have before shopping, store food so it keeps, freeze what you will not eat in time and use leftovers. Food past its 'best before' date is often still fine; do not eat food after its 'use by' date.
Note what you throw away and why. Seeing which foods you regularly bin, and at what point, makes it easier to change how you shop, store and cook.
Give unopened food you will not use to a food bank or community fridge, and consider volunteering with organisations that collect surplus from shops and caterers, where collecting food in time is often limited by logistics.
Use separate food waste collection or home composting where available, so peels, bones and spoiled food do not end up in landfill, where they produce methane.
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UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 27 March 2024, published 2024
Launch of the Food Waste Index Report 2024, still the latest edition as of October 2026. Source of 1.05 billion tonnes and 132 kg per person in 2022, the sector split, differences by income and climate, data gaps among G20 countries, the UK's reduction, national climate plans, emissions and land use.
United Nations Statistics Division (data from FAO and UNEP), published 2026
Official SDG progress report (data as of 30 April 2026). Source of the food loss estimates for 2023 (13.3% globally, regional and commodity breakdowns), the 2022 food waste estimate (about 19% of food available to consumers, 60% from households), the methane share, data coverage and Japan's reductions.
United Nations Statistics Division (data from FAO), published 2026
Official annual series of the global food loss percentage from 2015 to 2023, total and by food group, used for the trend chart.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Special Report on Climate Change and Land, published 2019
Assessment that 25–30% of total food produced is lost or wasted and that food loss and waste contributed 8–10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in 2010–2016 (paragraphs A.1.4 and B.6.3, medium confidence), and the technical options to reduce it.
UNEP and FAO, 12 November 2022, published 2022
Joint UNEP-FAO report on food cold chains: 526 million tonnes (12%) of food lost for lack of refrigeration, income losses for 470 million small-scale farmers, emissions of the food cold chain, and examples from India and Nigeria.
EY for the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, November 2019, published 2019
Official evaluation of France's 2016 law obliging supermarkets over 400 m² to donate unsold food: donation volumes 2014–2017, short remaining shelf life of donated food, logistics limits of food aid organisations and the law's limited scope.