An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted annually as 800 million people go hungry.
ROME, Italy- Enough food to feed two billion people is wasted every year, leading
UN agencies to create a new interactive platform to try to reduce the
losses, which could easily feed the world's 800 million who go hungry.
An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food, or roughly 30 percent of global
production, is lost or wasted annually, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
It remains unclear how effective the new platform will be in solving the
problem, but analysts say it is a step in the right direction.
The Global Community of Practice of Food Loss Reduction web portal,
launched last week, allows users to get information about ways of
reducing waste.
"We need to close the gap between people being aware of this problem and
what they do when they are standing in the grocery store or in the
kitchen," said Dana Gunders, a scientist with the Natural Resources
Defense Council, a US environmental advocacy group.
Awareness is the first step the more specific the information [available on the
portal] the more helpful it is in terms of reductions.
More than 40 percent of root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20 percent of oil
seeds, and 35 percent of fish never reach the mouths of hungry people,
the FAO reported.
In developed countries, food waste usually occurs in homes or restaurants,
when consumers discard products they believe have gone rotten, or in
grocery stores if products don't look picture perfect due to slight
blemishes.
Most of the developing world's spoilage happens during storage or transport,
as infrastructure for refrigeration and preservation
is often
inadequate.
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