Food loss data exposes a persistent gap
Rank 6 | Food systems | Global | SDGs 2, 12, 13
Source publication: 29 September 2026. Clock time not stated by publisher. Evidence status: New data map; no measured reduction announced.
AI-generated representative illustration | layered cut-paper botanical collage. Credit: Development Connects | Kallol Saha.
FAO released an interactive map of 2024 regional food-loss estimates on 29 September, aiming to make losses after harvest and before retail easier to compare. The agency estimates that 13.4% of food produced globally is lost at that stage. Separately, it cited a UN Environment Programme estimate that 19% of food available to consumers is wasted by retailers, food services and households. These percentages use different denominators and cannot simply be added.
FAO estimates about 1.4 billion hectares are used to produce food that is never consumed. It says food loss and waste together account for roughly 10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Reducing losses could increase usable food supply while easing demand for land, cold storage, transport and disposal capacity.
Case detail
The release links the food system to forest pressure through land use. Food that is not consumed still requires the land and other resources used in its production. Disposal can add a further climate burden when organic material decomposes without oxygen and releases methane.
The interactive map presents 2024 estimates at regional and subregional levels and will remain on FAO's technical platform for measurement and reduction of food loss and waste. It supplies a geographic entry point for identifying supply-chain problems rather than a new global reduction result. SDG target 12.3 also distinguishes the stages: it calls for halving per-capita waste at retail and consumer levels while reducing losses along production and supply chains by 2030.
Evidence and delivery status
FAO says there has been no apparent progress in reducing food losses since 2015. The 2024 map is new evidence made more accessible, rather than evidence of an achieved decline. The separate loss and waste percentages cannot be added into a single global rate because they refer to different stages and denominators.
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