africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
25.2 Food loss and wastage
By definition, “food loss” results from an agricultural process or technical limitation
in storage, infrastructure, packaging, or marketing while “food waste” refers to food
that is fit for human consumption but does not get consumed (Lipinski and others,
2013; FAO, 2011). Accurate data on the scale of food loss and waste along the supply
chain are not available. This is primarily for lack of a universal method of measuring
food loss and waste at the country level and across the different stages of the
food production and consumption chain. Countries and corporations are sometimes
under no obligation to report their food waste data. Thus, reliance on self-reporting
methods at the consumer and corporate level, and on the use of proxy or anecdotal
data for the measurement of food waste globally, means that the food waste figures
currently available probably underestimate the real numbers (FAO, 2011).
Worldwide, about one third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or
wasted in its journey from farm to table (Gustavsson and others, 2011; Lundqvist
and others, 2008). This amount could feed two billion people without harm to the
environment (FAO, 2011). According to Gustavsson and others (2011), in European
and North American countries between 208 kg and 300 kg of food per capita is lost or
wasted annually throughout the food chain, of which 95 kg to 115 kg is by consumers.
In Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, 120 kg to 170 kg of food per capita
is lost or wasted annually, of which only 6 kg to 11 kg is by consumers. Food losses
and wastage are gaining prominence in the face of the never ending challenge of
food insecurity in most of the African continent. They are important components of
the food security debate. Over the last few decades, food supply has grown 1 and so
has calorie intake per capita, but the continent does not grow enough food to feed
itself. Food wastage has been rising over time and was equivalent to 8 percent of
the continent’s total food supply in 2011 (Figure 25.1). More food losses occur at
the downstream end of the food chain than at the consumption stage, implying that
measures are needed to address the losses at different stages in the supply chain,
taking into account the unique characteristics of different food products.
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