Lost food, wasted resources: Global food supply chain losses and their impacts on freshwater, cropland, and fertiliser use

Reducing food losses and waste is considered to be one of the most promising measures to improve food security in the coming decades. Food losses also affect our use of resources, such as freshwater, cropland, and fertilisers. In this paper we estimate the global food supply losses due to lost and wasted food crops, and the resources used to produce them. We also quantify the potential food supply and resource savings that could be made by reducing food losses and waste. We used publically available global databases to conduct the study at the country level. We found that around one quarter of the produced food supply (614 kcal/cap/day) is lost within the food supply chain (FSC). The production of these lost…

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  Aalto-Yliopisto
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  Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie
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  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
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  Maa- ja Vesitekniikan Tuki Ry