Global food waste
Across the world a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food goes to waste each year – that’s one-third of all food produced for human consumption.70
Not only does this food waste account for 10% of all carbon emissions globally – four times that of the world’s entire aviation industry71 – but it would be enough to feed every person on the planet one meal each day for more than a year.
Food waste occurs throughout the supply chain and in people’s homes, with the balance of where this waste happens varying from country to country.
Surplus food in the UK
Here in the UK, a quarter of all food grown is never eaten, with this wasted harvest making up around 7% of our total greenhouse gas emissions.72 Across our supply chain, 4.6 million tonnes of edible food are wasted each year – the equivalent of 10 billion meals, enough to feed everyone in the country three meals a day for seven weeks.
This waste is made up of:73
- 2.9 million tonnes from UK farms
- 0.8 million tonnes from the hospitality sector
- 0.7 million tonnes from the manufacturing sector
- 0.2 million tonnes from the retail sector
An estimated 500,000 tonnes of surplus food from across the supply chain could be suitable for redistribution for people to eat.74

food surplus
References
UN FAO (2011) Global food losses and food waste: extent, causes and prevention. Available at: https://www.fao.org/3/mb060e/mb060e00.htm
WWF (2021) Driven to Waste: The Global Impact of Food Loss and Waste on Farms. Available at: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/food_practice/food_loss_and_waste/driven_to_waste_global_food_loss_on_farms/
Dimbleby, H. (2021) National Food Strategy: Independent Review. Available at: https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/
Edible food waste figures for primary production (farms) are from WWF (2022) Hidden Waste: The Scale and Impact of Food Waste in Primary Production. Edible food waste figures for hospitality and food services (HaFs), manufacturing, and retail are from WRAP (2023), UK Food Waste & Food Surplus – Key Facts, Meal equivalents are estimated using 420g as standard meal size, which is the method recommended by WRAP based on FSA data.
WRAP (2022) Surplus food redistribution in the UK 2015 to 2021. Available at: https://wrap.org.uk/resources/report/surplus-food-redistribution-uk-2015-2021