Globally, the average person wastes around 132 kilograms of food every year, and the number continues to rise steadily. While food waste has traditionally been higher in wealthy nations, new research shows that urbanisation and economic growth are driving significant increases in lower- and middle-income countries.
An opinion paper published in Cell Reports Sustainability highlights the urgent need for coordinated policies, structural investments, and consumer education to address the accelerating food waste crisis before it becomes deeply entrenched.
Food Waste: A Growing Global Challenge
Food waste refers to edible food that is discarded by consumers, restaurants, supermarkets, or retail establishments. Instead of being repurposed or redistributed, it is thrown away. Between 2004 and 2014, global food waste increased by nearly 24 percent, underscoring a troubling trend in consumption patterns.
Historically, high-income countries dominated waste statistics. Wealthier populations bought more food, discarded uneaten portions, and contributed to larger retail losses. Nonetheless, recent data suggests that food waste levels are converging across countries regardless of wealth. The annual per capita waste differs by just seven kilograms between high-, upper-middle-, and lower-middle-income nations.
This shift is largely due to rising waste in rapidly urbanising and economically expanding countries such as China, India, and Brazil.
How Urbanisation Fuels Food Waste
Urbanisation changes not only where people live but also how they shop, store, and consume food. As more people move into cities, access to supermarkets, refrigeration, and processed food increases. These conveniences, while improving food access, also encourage over-purchasing and greater waste.
Urban households, for instance, tend to discard more food than rural ones. In rural settings, leftover food is more often repurposed for animal feed, composting, or other uses. By contrast, urban consumers are less likely to reuse discarded food, often sending it straight to landfill.
The expansion of cold-chain logistics has had an impact. These are systems for transporting and storing perishable goods at controlled temperatures. They have shifted when and where waste occurs. More food now reaches homes and supermarkets. This shift reduces spoilage in fields or during transport. Yet, waste occurs due to improper storage or overbuying.
The Economic Costs of Food Waste
The financial implications of food waste are staggering. In Brazil alone, supermarket chains reported food losses worth R$6.7 billion, equivalent to $1.2 billion USD, in 2018. These losses represent not just wasted calories but also wasted resources, including water, energy, fertiliser, and labour invested in food production.
When food is wasted, the entire supply chain bears costs. Farmers lose revenue, retailers absorb losses, and consumers spend more without gaining nutritional value. This undermines food security and places additional strain on ecosystems already pressured by climate change and resource scarcity.
Public Health and Environmental Consequences
Food waste has far-reaching consequences beyond economics. When edible food is discarded, it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions during decomposition in landfills, exacerbating climate change. Globally, food waste is estimated to account for up to 10 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Public health is also threatened. As waste increases, so do the inequalities in food distribution. Millions face hunger and malnutrition worldwide, even as perfectly edible food is discarded in wealthier and middle-income households.
The convergence of food waste levels across all income groups suggests that if unchecked, unsustainable consumption patterns will continue to expand globally, worsening both environmental and health crises.
Why Middle-Income Countries Are Key
Middle-income countries are at the centre of the food waste challenge. Economic growth and urbanisation are reshaping diets, increasing reliance on supermarkets, and promoting higher consumption of perishable products such as meat, dairy, and fresh produce.
In nations such as China, India, and Brazil, growing middle classes are embracing modern retail systems, where bulk purchases and refrigeration increase both access to food and the potential for waste. These patterns, once established, can become locked in, leading to long-term structural challenges.
Without proactive policies, the trajectory of rising food waste in middle-income regions risks mirroring that of wealthy countries, with profound consequences for sustainability and equity.
Policy Solutions to Reduce Food Waste
Experts argue that curbing food waste requires more than individual action; it demands systemic change supported by coordinated policies and investments. Key strategies include:
- Cold chain infrastructure investment: Ensuring safe transport and storage of perishable foods while educating consumers to avoid shifting waste to households.
- Food donation laws and incentives: Encouraging supermarkets, restaurants, and retailers to donate unsold but edible food to food banks and community kitchens.
- Consumer education campaigns: Promoting smarter purchasing, proper storage techniques, portion control, and repurposing leftovers to minimise waste.
- Retail accountability: Implementing standards and incentives for supermarkets to reduce losses and report waste transparently.
- Composting and recycling initiatives: Supporting community-level composting, food-sharing networks, and waste-to-energy projects to repurpose unavoidable waste.
Building Awareness and Changing Social Norms
Public awareness plays a crucial role in shifting social norms around consumption. Campaigns that highlight portion control, leftover use, and sustainable shopping can make consumers more conscious of waste.
For example, teaching households to plan meals, store fruits and vegetables correctly, and avoid bulk purchasing without need could drastically reduce waste at the consumer level. At the same time, schools and communities can integrate food sustainability into education, shaping attitudes from an early age.
A Call for Global Cooperation
The researchers emphasise that addressing food waste requires collaboration between governments, businesses, research institutions, and civil society. Food waste is not simply a local issue; it is a global problem that transcends borders, demanding region-specific but globally coordinated strategies.
International frameworks that incorporate food-waste reduction into sustainability goals, trade policies, and climate commitments could help align efforts. Governments must prioritise waste reduction as part of broader food security and environmental policies, ensuring that interventions consider both economic and equity dimensions.
The Urgency of Immediate Action
“Inaction today will magnify long-term costs and increase the difficulty of future interventions,” warn authors Emiliano Lopez Barrera and Dominic Vieira from Texas A&M University.
The longer food waste remains unaddressed, the more deeply entrenched unsustainable consumption patterns will become, particularly in middle-income countries. This could lock global systems into pathways that are costly, unjust, and environmentally destructive.
However, the study also highlights hope. With proactive investments, consumer education, and fairer food policies, societies can reshape habits before they become permanently embedded.
Conclusion
Food waste is no longer a challenge confined to wealthy nations. With rising urbanisation and economic growth, middle- and lower-income countries are now contributing significantly to global waste levels. Left unchecked, this trend threatens food security, public health, and environmental stability.
Reducing food waste requires urgent action: investing in infrastructure, incentivising food donation, educating consumers, and building sustainable consumption patterns. Only through global cooperation and localised policies can the world build a food system that is efficient, equitable, and resilient.
The food wasted each year could feed millions, reduce emissions, and ease pressure on ecosystems. Addressing the issue is not just a matter of sustainability — it is a moral imperative.