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The World Loses $400 Billion of Food Before It Reaches Stores

  • About 14% of food supplies are lost each year: United Nations
  • Food wastage causes unnecessary pressure on environment: FAO
Charity Seeks To Re-purpose Supermarket Waste Food To Combat Food Poverty

Photographer: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The world loses about $400 billion of food before it even gets delivered to stores, according to the United Nations.

Some 14% of all food produced is lost annually, with central and southern Asia, North America and Europe accounting for the biggest shares, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report, citing the latest data as of 2016. Better cold storage and infrastructure would help reduce losses, but more detailed data on the supply chain is needed to tackle the problem, it said.