Estimating the nutritional loss and the feeding potential derived from food losses worldwide

Highlights

• Nutritional Loss and Waste (NLS) represents the nutritional potential derived from food loss and waste;

• Feeding potential (FP) is the number of adult individuals that could be fed with food losses;

• World’s food production is increasing, and the rate of food losses follows this grow;

• World’s food losses in 2017 would be enough to feed about 940 million adult individuals;

• Investigations on nutritional production and waste can help to promote global food security.

Abstract

This study, focused on the concept of nutritional loss and waste (NLW), aimed to estimate the nutritional losses derived from food losses worldwide, estimating the number of people that could be fed with the amount of food loss worldwide, and confronting such estimate with the prevalence of undernourished people worldwide. We analyzed data on the estimated amount of food losses, considering different food types in nations worldwide, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The investigation estimated the amounts of kilocalories and proteins for each food item available in the FAO’s Food Balance Sheets. Data regarding energy and protein losses were converted into the feeding potential (FP) metric that evaluates the number of adult individuals that could be fed with the nutritional losses. The study uses the balance of feeding potential (BFP) obtained through the FP minus the prevalence of undernourished population. The results show that the total production of the main food groups in the world has drastically increased in the last decades, and the rate of loss for such food groups remains constant or slightly growing. Moreover, the results suggest that the amount of food losses registered by the FAO in 2017 would be enough to feed about 940 million adult individuals, being enough to feed the amount of undernourished people in the world. Furthermore, some countries present high levels of BFP, such as the United States, Brazil and China. In contrast, some other countries, such as India and Pakistan, show lower levels of BFP. Policymakers and private sector agents involved in global food systems should be focusing their attention on increasing supply chain efficiency and reducing food loss and waste (FLW) and NLW on a global scale. This study encourages the definition of an international treaty committing nations to significantly reduce their FLW and NLW levels.

Introduction

Food security is defined as a situation that exists when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle” (FAO, 2003). And to achieve food security it is necessary to fulfill four conditions simultaneously: (1) physical availability of food; (2) economic and physical access to food; (3) food utilization; and (4) stability of the other three dimensions over time (FAO, 2008).

Despite efforts at the global level, food insecurity still severely affects nations worldwide. Indeed, the FAO estimated that by 2016, about 795 million people were suffering from hunger, and 98% of them was concentrated in developing countries(FAO, 2018). In addition, considering population growth and the growing demand for food (Floros et al., 2010, Godfray et al., 2010), activities associated with food production relate to high environmental impacts, aggravating climate change and damaging the environment (P. Smith and Gregory, 2013, Tilman et al., 2002, Tilman and Clark, 2014).

In this scenario, the high level of food loss and waste (FLW) in the world directly affects the conditions for promoting food security on a global scale (Parfitt, Barthel, & Macnaughton, 2010). Food loss occurs throughout the supply chains, from primary production to final household consumption level. On the other hand, food waste is part of food loss and refers to discarding or alternative (non-food) use of food that is safe and nutritious for human consumption along the entire food supply chain, from primary production to end household consumer level (FAO, 2019).

Regarding this, the FAO estimates that about one-third of all food produced in the world is lost during the production process or consumption (FAO, 2011, FAO, 2018). Converting such a loss into calories, the result suggests that for every four calories destined for consumption, one is lost (Lipinski, Hanson, Lomax, Kitinoja, Waite, & Searchinger, 2013a), and these losses occur at several levels and occasions in the supply and consumption chain (Corrado and Sala, 2018, Ju et al., 2017, Parfitt et al., 2010). Converting FLW into nutritional loss and waste (NLW), it is possible to estimate the nutritional potential associated with the FLW, as well as the number of people that could be fed with such waste. Thus, NLW is defined as the nutritional potential, regarding macronutrients and micronutrients, derived from the FLW.

FLW has implications in waste of important productive and environmental resources (e.g. water, land, energy, workforce) (De Menna, Dietershagen, Loubiere, & Vittuari, 2018; M. Kummu, de Moel, Porkka, Siebert, Varis, & Ward, 2012), and has potential implications for food prices dynamics (Huffaker, Canavari, & Muñoz-Carpena, 2018). Evidence shows that FLW occurs in all stages of the food supply chain (Abass et al., 2014, Kazancoglu et al., 2018, Yang et al., 2019), and is associated with waste of important natural and economic resources, such as water, land, monetary investments, fertilizers, pesticides, labor work force, and energy (Kibler et al., 2018, Woon et al., 2016). Reducing FLW worldwide becomes a global challenge in order to promote food security worldwide and reduce environmental pressures, such as greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, climate change and hydric stresses (Garcia-Herrero et al., 2018, Irani et al., 2018).

The NLW represents the nutritional potential derived from FLW. Hence, this study aims to estimate the NLW derived from the FLW registered worldwide, analyzing the loss of nutritional potential associated with food losses worldwide. Also, this study aims to estimate the number of people that could be fed with the amount of food lost worldwide by confronting such estimate with the prevalence of undernourished people worldwide. This research also suggests a methodological approach with the purpose of converting the FLW into a nutritional waste-generating metric that allows evaluating the nutritional potential in the number of people derived from the amount of food produced and/or wasted.