This article was written by the Associated Press and was published in the Toronto Star on March 28, 2024.

The world wasted an estimated 19 per cent of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to a new United Nations report.

The UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report, published Wednesday, tracks the progress of countries to halve food waste by 2030.

The UN said the number of countries reporting for the index nearly doubled from the first report in 2021. The 2021 report estimated that 17 per cent of the food produced globally in 2019, or 931 million tonnes , was wasted, but authors warned against direct comparisons because of the lack of sufficient data from many countries.

The report is co-authored by UNEP and Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), an international charity.

Researchers analyzed country data on households, food service and retailers. They found that each person wastes about 79 kilograms of food annually, equal to at least a billion meals wasted worldwide daily. Most of the waste — 60 per cent — came from households. About 28 per cent came from food service, or restaurants, with about 12 per cent from retailers.

“It is a travesty,” said co-author Clementine O’Connor, the focal point for food waste at UNEP.