Roughly one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted every year, which amounts to a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes. Not only is this hugely damaging to the environment, but there are also far-reaching ethical and financial implications.

Thankfully, people and nations across the planet are attempting to become more conscientious when it comes to trying to avoid wasting food. From charities to major organisations, innovative ideas are evolving our relationship with food, spearheaded by new technologies and changes in laws to shrink the environmental impact of food waste.

Using figures from the UNEP Food Waste Index Report, we’ve taken a deep dive into what remains a globally important issue, to see which of the world’s largest 99 exporters are responsible for producing the most food waste.

China produces the most food waste per year, with 179 million tonnes. India is second with 128 million tonnes, and the US third with 45 million tonnes. The UK ranks 21st globally, and waste around 6.5 million tonnes per year.

Slovenia and Trinidad & Tobago are among the most resourceful countries, wasting just 126,758 & 156,662 tonnes of food per year

Reducing food waste at all levels, be it household, food service or retail, will provide numerous benefits for people and the planet. And with each sector making a unique contribution, we’ve split out the data to highlight who the top contributors of waste are for each, along with who are the most resourceful. The figures are presented using kg per capita, to take into consideration the population density of each nation.

The top contributors

Greece produces the most food waste on a per capita basis when it comes to household waste. The 1,483,996 tonnes per year translates to 141kg per capita. Malaysia are the top contributors when looking at both food service and retail, with 89.56kg and 141.69kg per capita respectively.

The bottom contributors

Russia is among the most resourceful when it comes to household waste, with just 33kg of waste per capita. In the food service sector, Bangladesh produces the least amount of waste, with just 3.34kg per capita. New Zealand is wasting the least when it comes to retail, with just over 3kg of waste.

Navigate the below table to see how all 99 countries we studied measure up against one another.

We looked at the top 99 largest exporters against data from the 2021 UNEP Food Waste Index to see how much food is wasted globally each year. Taking into account varying population sizes, we then looked at the figures on a per capita basis per 1,000 people to see who is wasting the most and least.

 

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