MUNICH, GERMANY - As our team has frequently heard from our Editor In Chief, if we have too many priorities, then nothing is a priority. This has often felt the case when it comes to the grand task of tackling sustainability. Known for the wide variation of topics and issues this umbrella term can encompass, IFCO recently released a deep dive that calls on making food waste reduction a higher priority in the mission.

“Back in 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published an insightful but damning report titled Global Food Losses and Food Waste, estimating around one-third of the world’s food is wasted every year. This added up to a staggering 1.3 billion tons, worth almost one trillion US dollars. What’s more, this global problem is costly to the planet. Food waste generates an estimated 8–10 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If food loss and food waste were classed as a country, it would rank as the third-biggest emitter of GHG emissions in the world, coming after China and the U.S.,” the company stated in its release.

How much progress have we made since the report was first published? Not nearly enough, the company said simply.

Pointing to the United Nations’ food loss and waste reduction target—one of the world’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, known as the SDG Target 12.3—the global call to cut food loss and waste by half by 2030 stands as a key example of where we are today.

“According to the 2023 assessment of the world’s progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3, that ambitious goal to cut food waste by half is still looking elusive in every region around the globe,” IFCO stated.

IFCO, for its part, noted it is stepping up to the challenge by designing reusable packaging solutions that cut food waste dramatically, citing its RPCs as reducing product damage by up to 96 percent which cuts food waste significantly.

While consumers are often shouldered with food loss, the fresh grocery supply chain could play a stronger role in the solution, per the report, though this varies considerably from one region to the next.

“In developing countries, for instance, [food waste] tends to occur at the early stages of the food supply chain. This is often because of limitations in harvesting techniques, storage, and transport infrastructure,” IFCO stated, citing Australia, New Zealand, Central and Southern Asia, Europe, and North America—the latter clocking food loss up to around 16 percent.

“Such differences indicate that food loss needs to be tackled predominantly on a country and regional level. The solutions will vary and will also depend heavily on the local conditions, the produce, transport infrastructure, and consumer behavior…Reducing food waste efficiently along the supply chain and in all our households can result in a win-win scenario. Halving food waste could help meet the demand for nutrition of our growing population. And equally minimize the negative environmental effects of agriculture. It saves lives, reduces costs, and helps protect the planet for future generations. Putting reducing food waste at the top of our priorities means having to deal less with food disposal at the end,” the company summarized.

To explore the full report, click here. Stick around for more news from ANUK.

IFCO