According to the “Food Waste Index Report 2024” released by the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), food waste is a market failure that results in the throwing away of more than US$1 trillion worth of food every year. It is also an environmental failure as food waste generates an estimated 8–10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (including from both loss and waste), and it takes up the equivalent of nearly 30 per cent of the world’s agricultural land.
The Food Waste Index Report, which tracks country-level progress toward halving food waste by 2030 (SDG 12.3), revealed that most of the world’s food waste comes from households. Out of the total food waste in 2022, households were responsible for 631 million tonnes, equivalent to 60 per cent, the food service sector for 290, and the retail sector for 131.
The report noted that Nigerians waste 113kg of food at home per year, amounting to 24.79 million tons of household food waste in the country—the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among the other countries in the region, Tanzania households waste 152kg of food per person annually, Uganda 110kg, Seychelles 183kg, Rwanda 141kg, and Mozambique 92kg.
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According to UN projections, food waste is a worldwide catastrophe, and due to global food waste, over 783 million people will go hungry at present. The report advises governments to improve data collection and proposes best practices for transitioning from monitoring to decreasing food waste.
