September 29: Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day.
Every year, nearly a third of the food produced in the world never reaches our plates ; it is lost or wasted throughout the food chain. This paradox is all the more shocking given that hundreds of millions of people still suffer from hunger on the planet. In 2022, it was estimated that 783 million people were undernourished , even though more than 1 billion tons of food went to waste that same year.
September 29th has been proclaimed the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste by the United Nations, in order to draw the general public's attention to the extent of food waste and encourage concrete actions to address it. In this article, we explain the reasons for the creation of this world day, the key figures of food waste, its environmental, economic, and social impacts, and the solutions, from citizens to communities, to take action on a daily basis. Vegetable peelings and food scraps destined for compost or the trash: every day, tons of still-edible food end up in the trash, hence the urgency of raising awareness against food waste.
Why an International Day Against Food Waste?
Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, it responds to growing concerns about the scale of food waste and its consequences. Globally, around 13% of food produced is lost before it even reaches the store (during harvesting, storage, and transportation), and nearly 17 to 19% of total food production is wasted by retailers, restaurants, and consumer households.
To take a concrete example: In Europe, it is estimated that an average person wastes 173 kg of food per year , much of which is avoidable. These few figures show the scale of the challenge and explain the need for a world day dedicated to this problem: it is about raising awareness of the urgent need to act at all levels, from farm to fork.
An invisible environmental disaster
Beyond food waste, food loss and waste imposes a considerable ecological burden . Producing food that will never be eaten uses up enormous natural resources for nothing: agricultural land (around 30% of arable land is used to grow food that will be wasted), astronomical quantities of fresh water, energy, fertilizers, and hours of labor… All of this to end up in the trash. Food waste also contributes significantly to climate change : it is estimated that food loss and waste generates 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be one of the three largest emitters of CO₂ , behind China and the United States. In landfills, rotting food emits methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas. For comparison, pollution from food waste represents nearly five times the emissions of all global air traffic. Finally, this food waste aggravates the degradation of biodiversity : for nothing, we will have exhausted the soil, fished the oceans or cut down forests in order to produce this food that ultimately goes uneaten. Reducing food waste therefore appears to be an essential lever for protecting the planet: it is a climate solution in its own right, which each country and each community can adopt to reduce its ecological footprint.
A huge economic waste
Throwing away food also means throwing away money . The economic impact of food waste is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars lost each year. The UN estimates that the value of wasted food is approximately $750 billion per year (not even counting environmental impacts, which are harder to monetize). For producers, it means lost crops; for food companies and distributors, it means wasted investments, time, and energy; for consumers, it means money spent on food that will end up in the trash. At the national level, such food waste weighs on the economy and food security . Losses reduce the supply of food available on the market, which can contribute to higher prices. In turn, this affects household purchasing power and the access of the poorest to sufficient food. Halving global food waste by 2030 is one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (target 12.3 of the 2030 Agenda). Achieving this goal would generate enormous savings and free up resources to more effectively combat global hunger.
Significant social consequences
From a social and humanitarian perspective, food waste is a moral scandal . Every portion of food thrown in the trash represents a meal that could have fed someone in need. Yet, even today, millions of families around the world suffer from malnutrition or food insecurity.
Reducing food waste alone would certainly not be enough to eradicate hunger, which is a complex problem, but it could make a significant contribution by making more food available where it is in short supply. For example, it has been calculated that saving just a quarter of all the food wasted worldwide could feed around 870 million people—more than enough to eliminate current hunger. Food waste also reveals inequalities : in rich countries, we throw away food because we produce and consume more than we need, while in other regions, entire communities lack the necessities. is a matter of equity and social justice . Finally, even at the local level, food waste has social consequences: for example, unsold food could benefit associations that help the most deprived. Aware of this, France was a pioneer with the Garot law of 2016, which prohibits supermarkets from throwing away edible food and requires them to enter into donation agreements with charitable organizations to redistribute these unsold items.
This type of legislative initiative, now being rolled out in other countries, shows that it is possible to mobilize solidarity to transform waste into a useful resource for the most disadvantaged. In short, fighting food waste not only protects the environment and the economy, but also strengthens solidarity and works to ensure that one day no one will go hungry due to a lack of access to food.
Act at all levels: solutions for everyone
Good news: each of us can contribute to the fight against food waste, and solutions are emerging at every stage of the chain. Here are some concrete actions available to citizens , businesses , and communities :
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- Citizens (at home): We can all adopt simple anti-waste reflexes in our daily lives. For example, better planning our shopping and meals to only buy what we need, learning to cook leftovers and use up what's left in the fridge, understanding expiration dates ("best before" doesn't mean the food is no longer good after this date!), storing food properly (refrigerating, freezing) to prolong its freshness, or accepting the consumption of "ugly" but equally tasty fruits and vegetables. Every action counts: serving smaller portions to avoid throwing away what isn't eaten, composting peelings and organic waste, or donating products we won't consume (to neighbors, friends, or via food donation apps) are all simple ways to reduce waste at the household level. By changing our consumption habits, we also send a signal to other players in the food chain.
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- Businesses (production, distribution, and catering) : Professionals have a key role to play in reducing losses throughout the chain. In agriculture, this involves better harvesting and storage techniques to prevent products from being lost before reaching the market. In the food industry and mass retail, optimizing inventory and logistics management helps minimize unsold items; several brands set up discounted shelves or baskets at the end of the day to sell off food close to its expiration date. Supermarkets, for their part, can partner with food banks to donate their unsold items each day rather than throwing them away (as required by law in France). In the catering industry (restaurants, canteens, hotels, etc.), many initiatives are emerging: adjusting the size of portions served, offering customers the option of taking leftovers away (doggy bags), or measuring and analyzing food waste to identify where action can be taken. New technologies are providing a welcome boost: mobile apps that connect people to collect unsold items at low prices (such as TooGoodToGo, Phenix, etc.), or connected kitchen equipment that tracks in real time what's going to waste and thus adapts orders and menus. These innovations help businesses gain insight into their waste and address it in a targeted manner, while saving money.
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- Communities and public authorities : Local authorities (town halls, regions) and states can create an environment conducive to reducing waste. This involves awareness campaigns (for example, in schools and colleges, through educational programs on sustainable food) to ingrain good practices from an early age. Municipalities can encourage or organize anti-waste events: leftover cooking workshops, solidarity banquets using unsold items, anti-waste competitions in school cafeterias, etc. Public authorities also have the ability to encourage or impose certain measures: for example, introducing the sorting and separate collection of biowaste (kitchen waste) so that it can be used as compost or biogas rather than sent to landfill, or setting up subsidies and rewards for retailers and restaurateurs who are exemplary in the fight against waste. Laws like the one adopted in France in 2016 can be replicated elsewhere to force supermarkets to redistribute unsold goods to charities . Internationally, governments are encouraged to set waste reduction targets aligned with the SDGs and share best practices. Finally, local authorities can support innovation and local projects: helping to create food donation platforms, supporting solidarity grocery stores, or funding studies to understand waste in their area. In short, public decision-makers have the power to draw the whole of society into a virtuous circle where it becomes easier and more natural not to waste.
Raising awareness to better change behaviors
As we can see, technical solutions and best practices exist; however, nothing will change in depth without a change in mentalities. This is where awareness comes in. By talking openly about food waste and its consequences, we break the taboo of "throwaway" and make everyone realize the value of food. The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, every September 29, plays a crucial role from this point of view. All over the world, this day is an opportunity to raise awareness among the general public through communication campaigns, conferences, educational workshops and solidarity operations.
The media are reporting on it, schools are organizing special activities, companies are communicating about their commitments, citizens are sharing anti-waste tips and recipes… This annual focus highlights positive initiatives and celebrates progress made, while reminding us how far we still have to go. Above all, constant awareness-raising, not just on September 29, but throughout the year, is essential to anchor new habits. Changing our behaviors towards food requires time and information efforts. For example, this involves teaching consumers to differentiate between the best-before date (beyond which a food may present a danger) and the minimum durability date (after which a product remains edible even if it may lose some of its quality): this education would help avoid a huge part of household waste due to wrongly discarded products. Similarly, socially promoting anti-waste behaviors – congratulating the diner who finishes their plate, promoting the image of the chef who uses all parts of an ingredient, etc. – helps to change the social norm . In short, raising awareness means making people want to act . The more people understand the impact of their actions and the benefits of eating without waste, the more motivated they will be to adopt responsible actions and to demand changes on a larger scale.
Towards a future without waste: innovating and committing together
The fight against food waste is a societal challenge, but it's also a tremendous opportunity to build a more sustainable, inclusive, and efficient food system. By reducing our losses, we could better feed the world's population, ease pressure on ecosystems and the climate, and achieve significant savings. This is a fight that gives everyone a role: from field to fork, every link in the chain can do its part. The momentum is building everywhere: citizens are inventing new anti-waste recipes and sharing their tips, startups are developing technologies to optimize food management, farmers and distributors are rethinking their practices, and governments are setting ambitious roadmaps to end waste. While much remains to be done to achieve the UN's goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 (SDG 12.3), progress is tangible. Above all, we are seeing a growing awareness: wasting less is becoming a shared value, a sort of "new politeness" towards the planet and humanity. By changing our view of food, by respecting its true value, we are also changing our societal model towards greater sustainability. Finally, the rise of innovative solutions brings hope.
The latest legislation adopted by the European Parliament in September 2025 is part of this dynamic and sets ambitious binding targets at EU level to reduce food waste by 2030. Each Member State will have to reduce waste at the processing and manufacturing stages by 20%, and by 40% in distribution and catering, compared to 2020. This legislation represents a major political step forward and sends a strong signal to stakeholders in the agri-food sector, encouraging them to accelerate their transition to more sustainable practices. It echoes the efforts of committed companies like Kikleo, which are already offering concrete solutions to achieve these ambitious targets and effectively combat waste on a daily basis.
For example, at Kikleo , we offer technological tools to help restaurants and canteens reduce their waste: thanks to connected scales and precise monitoring of kitchen losses, these establishments can identify where they are wasting food and take targeted measures to improve the situation. This type of initiative is in line with everything we have discussed: it demonstrates that everyone can take action at their own level, and that with creativity, we can transform a problem into an opportunity for progress. (To learn more about Kikleo's solutions, you can visit their website.)
On this International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, let us remember that every little bit helps. Let's fight food waste together—for people, for the planet, and for future generations. As the UN slogan says: "Stop food waste. For people. For the planet." It's up to us to make this goal a reality, one step at a time, plate by plate. Together, let's learn to appreciate every piece of bread and every piece of fruit, and build a future where no more food is produced in vain. Together, let's put an end to food waste!
