With 1.2 billion tonnes of food wasted globally on farms, including 149 million tonnes for Europe, an ambitious food waste reduction targets from food to fork is needed to tackle the issue, a new report by WWF has urged.
Published on Wednesday July 21 in partnership with Tesco, the Driven to Waste report revealed an estimated 2.5b tonnes of food goes uneaten worldwide, an increase of nearly one billion tones on previous estimates.
In addition, on European farms, 15 per cent of food produced is wasted, with more food lost on farms per capita in developed countries, including the UK, than in the developing world.
The findings come in the wake of the National Food Strategy, which highlighted that a third of food is wasted before it leaves UK farms and more than a quarter of food grown is never eaten, accounting for six to seven per cent of total UK greenhouse gas emissions.
David Edwards, director of food strategy at WWF-UK said: "Decisions by business and governments have a significant impact on the levels of food lost or wasted on farms, including in the UK.
"To radically reduce food waste, we need ambitious reductions targets across the whole food supply chain, with businesses who buy the food supporting farmers in making this happen.
"Transforming our global food system is critical in tackling the climate and nature crisis and safeguarding our planet's health."
Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco said: "At Tesco, we publish food waste data for every one of the markets we operate in and have been working with 71 of our largest global suppliers to reduce food waste and have already reported a reduction of more than 40 per cent, when compared to our 2016/17 baseline.
"Using the Target Measure Act framework, we are continuously taking action, from broadening our specs and selling wonky veg in our Perfectly Imperfect range, to donating surplus farm produce to schools and communities in Kenya.
"This year several of our suppliers will report on their own farm food loss and waste for the first time, helping us to tackle waste in the earliest parts of the supply chain."
The report can be accessed by clicking here.
