The sixth observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste will be observed on 29 September 2025 and calls for the expansion and strengthening of stakeholder efforts to reduce food loss and waste (FLW), as a critical element of securing a sustainable food future for all.
Stop Food Waste! For People and Planet.
The world’s population, currently at 8.2 billion, is expected to grow to close to 9.7 billion people by 2050 (UNDESA, 2024). Ensuring a food secure world – where current and future populations have access to sufficient nutritious food – crucially requires new ways of working, and concerted efforts to improve the sustainability and resilience of agrifood systems globally.
Reducing food loss and waste helps to protect natural resources and biodiversity, reduce pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and maximize the use of food produced. It is therefore central to securing efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, and to improving food security, nutrition and health.
Embracing innovation and fostering circular economy approaches in agrifood systems to prevent, reduce, reuse and repurpose FLW also serves to create new job opportunities, improve livelihoods and generate financial benefits for a range of stakeholders.
Now is the time for everyone – from producers, investors, businesses and supply chain stakeholders to consumers of all ages, as well as academia and research, civil society, and the private and public sectors – to take urgent action to expand and strengthen efforts both individually and collectively, to reduce food loss and waste towards ensuring a food secure world – now and in the future.
Reducing FLW is enshrined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – within SDG 12, which seeks to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, Target 12.3 aims to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains” by 2030.
Did you know?
Saving food that is already produced – by reducing FLW – may be one of the least expensive ways to help transform agrifood systems for greater efficiency and resilience (FAO, 2024).
Valorizing food-processing side streams to mitigate food loss can improve economic, social and environmental aspects of the current food system and encourage more equitable distribution of food from different geographical regions, thus helping to ensure greater global food security (IFT, 2023).
- Preventing and reducing food waste not only lowers methane emissions; it also cuts down on the use of resources (such as land, water, and energy) that are required for food production.
- Reducing food waste is the most cost-effective and achievable climate solution. (Project Drawdown, 2022).
International Day
Public and private entities as well as consumers from across the food systems, must work to cut food loss and waste to enhance the use of natural resources, mitigate climate change and support food security and proper nutrition for all. The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste: Get Involved guide offers key messages, facts and figures, and actions that stakeholders can take to help reduce food loss and waste.
Partners and Supporters
