25% of apples, 20% of onions and 13% of potatoes grown in the UK are wasted because they don’t match suppliers’ cosmetic standards. (QMUL 2023)
The average UK household is wasting nearly 8 meals per week! That’s 3.2kg of food wasted per household per week. (WRAP 2023)
The government’s recent impact assessment has found the cost of food waste to be £19 billion – that doesn't include food wasted pre-farmgate! (DEFRA 2022)
4.7 million tonnes of edible food waste came from households alone! This could fill 8 Wembley Stadiums, 95 Royal Albert Halls, 39 million wheelie bins or 3,800 Olympic sized swimming pools. (WRAP 2023)
The estimated amount of food that was wasted in 2021/22 was 6.4 million tonnes [Mt] from households, 1.6Mt from farms, 1.4Mt from manufacturing, 1.1Mt from hospitality and food service, and 0.2Mt from retail. (WRAP 2023)
The number of people living in food insecure UK households increased by 2.5 million between 2021/22 and 2022/23. (DWP 2023)
in the world
In 2022, 19% of all food produced was wasted and a further 12% was lost in the supply chain. That means that nearly a third of the food that we produce is not ultimately consumed. (UNEP 2024)
31.5% of produced fruit and veg appears to be wasted, according to FAO 2021/22 estimations. (IFPRI 2022)
According to the FAO, the food that we lose or waste would feed 1.26 billion people. (FAO 2022)
The environmental impact of food loss/waste is estimated to cost the global economy £736 billion every year. (WEF 2021)
Food waste generates an estimated 8 – 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. If it were a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of GHG emissions, behind China (1st) and the USA (2nd). (UNEP 2024)
The equivalent of at least one billion meals of edible food is being wasted in households worldwide every single day. (UNEP 2024)
