A Food Waste Index Report 2021 conducted by the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said a Bangladeshi annually wastes 65 kg food at home on average.
The report, which was released on March 4, is designed to support global efforts to halve food waste by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) conducted studies in Chattagram to prepare the UN estimates for Bangladesh,.
According to the report, Bangladesh’s annual food waste is over one crore tonne (1,06,18,233).
The South Asian country’s food waste is close to global per capita food waste which is estimated at 74 kg a year.
The report is said to be as “remarkably similar across the countries, both in lower and higher-income ones”.
Estimates say at least 93.10 crore tonnes of food are wasted globally every year, which amounts to 17 percent of total food production.
The report says out of the total, nearly 57 crore tonnes of food waste, which is 11 percent of global food production, comes from homes.
It further adds five percent from food services and two percent from retail establishments.
The per capita food waste in India is estimated at 50 kg a year, the lowest in South Asia.
The total annual waste is, however, estimated to be the highest 6,87,60,163 tonnes.
The annual food waste per capita is 74 kg in Pakistan; while its total annual waste is 1,59,47,645 tonnes.
In Sri Lanka, the annual per capita food waste is the highest – 76 kg – but the country’s total waste, 16,17,738 tonnes a year, accounts for the lowest in the region.
Only 14 countries, categorised under ‘high confidence’ data, provided food waste data of restaurants, businesses, production fields, and in the supply chain, other than in homes, the report added.