Letter To Editor | 1 Billion Meals a Day Wasted

It is a matter of grave concern that households across the world have wasted 1 billion meals a day in 2022, which constitutes 60% of the total wastage of food, according to the Food Wastage Index Report 2024, a study co-authored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Food loss or waste has indeed become an issue of great public concern. It must be understood that when a bunch of bananas falls off a truck or restaurant owners fill their rubbish bins with leftover meals, all those resources also essentially get wasted along with the food. It may surprise us, but the fact is that it takes an average of 125 litres of water to produce just one apple. This means that throwing away a damaged apple is akin to pouring 125 litres of water down the drain.

There needs to be a broad spectrum of stakeholders and partners to tackle this mountainous problem. Governments and other international bodies must work in tandem to promote awareness on this critical issue and develop policies to reduce food loss and wastage. There must also be coordination among food supply chain actors – farmers, handlers, processors and traders in collaboration with the public and private sectors and the civil society to prevent food wastage. Perhaps, educating people in a sustained manner on safe food handling, proper food storage in households and understanding “best before” dates will be of some help in tackling the issue. Discarding food is not sustainable for our earth and the environment.

Ranganathan Sivakumar

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