THE PROBLEM OF

FOOD WASTE
89 million tonnes
of food are wasted
each year
in the European Union2

18

The UK throws away 18

million

tonnes of food waste each year

8.3 million tonnes

from consumers
4.1 million tonnes from
food manufacturers
3 million tonnes from food
service restaurants

28%

3 million tonnes from other

groups including agricultural,
horticultural and public sector

Globally to grow all

the food that is
wasted it takes

1.4 billion
hectares of land:
28% of the worlds
agricultural land4

1.6 million tonnes from food

retailers3

If food waste were

a country it would
rank top third
green house gas
emitter after China
and the USA5

Food waste is not an isolated

problem but systematic of a
food system under strain.
Significant structural change
is needed in order to tackle
the causes of food waste6

The direct
consequences
of global food
waste amount
to
$750
billion
annually7

References:
1.

DEFRA (2010) Food 2030, DEFRA, London. Available at: http://sd.defra.gov.uk/2010/01/food2030/

2.

European Parliament (2014) Tackling Food Waste: The EUs contribution to a global issue.
European Parliamentary Research Service. Available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/
bibliotheque/briefing/2014/130678/LDM_BRI(2014)130678_REV1_EN.pdf

3.

Food 2030, DEFRA, London, http://sd.defra.gov.uk/2010/01/food-2030/ (2010)

4.

FAO (2013) Food Waste Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources. FAO. Available: http://
www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf

5.

Evans, D and Welch, D (2015) Food Waste Transitions: Consumption, Retail and Collaboration
Towards a Sustainable Food System. Sustainable Consumption Institute Manchester: Available
at: http://www.sci.manchester.ac.uk/sites/default/files/SCI%20Food%20Waste%20Transitions%
20Report.pdf

6.

This is Rubbish (2013) Counting What Matters: The Report of the Industry Food Waste Audit
Proposal. This is Rubbish. Available at: http://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk/counting-what-mattersreport/

7.

Evans, D and Welch, D (2015) Food Waste Transitions: Consumption, Retail and Collaboration
Towards a Sustainable Food System. Sustainable Consumption Institute Manchester: Available
at: http://www.sci.manchester.ac.uk/sites/default/files/SCI%20Food%20Waste%20Transitions%
20Report.pdf

This infographic has been produced as part of the

ESRC Festival of Social Science: Innovation in Tackling Food Waste Event
hosted by Coventry University on 9th November 2015