Food Waste: The Good, the Bad, and (Maybe) the Ugly

Abstract

Approximately one-third of the food produced globally—close to 1 billion tons—ends up as waste, and, at the same time, more than 800 million people are undernourished, which makes Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, to halve food waste by 2020, rather ambitious if not illusory. In the present study, data on food waste in households, the food service sector, and the retail sector are used as indicators for 78 countries that are analyzed by applying a partial order methodology—allowing all indicators to be taken into account simultaneously—to disclose the “good” (below average) and the “bad” (above average) among the countries on an average scale. Countries such as Belgium, Japan, and Slovenia should be labeled as “good” in this context, whereas the “bad” includes countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda, and Tanzania, countries that must cope simultaneously with severe malnutrition and hunger. This study further includes a search for so-called peculiar countries. Here, the USA and Ireland pop up, as they have very high amounts of waste in their food service sectors due to their eating profiles. Finally, the possible influence of assigning a higher weight to household waste is discussed. The overall objective of this study is to contribute to the necessary decisions that need to be made in order to fight the food waste problem and, thus, fulfill Sustainable Development Goal No. 2—zero hunger. As the world produces enough food for everyone, it is unacceptable that more than 800 million people are undernourished and that 14 million children suffer from stunting; perhaps all countries call for the label “ugly”. The present study contributes to highlighting the food waste problem and suggests specific action points for the studied countries.