783 million people face chronic hunger. Yet the world wastes 19% of its food, UN says

By CARLOS MUREITHI
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A new United Nations report estimates that 19% of the food produced around the world went to waste in 2022. That’s a little more than 1 billion metric tons of food that could have helped feed the hundreds of millions of people who live with hunger every day. The biggest share of that waste, about 60%, came in households. Almost 30% came in food service operations, such as restaurants. The updated Food Waste Index out Wednesday comes three years after the U.N.’s first attempt to quantify the problem as part of trying to cut food waste in half by the year 2030. Besides leaving people hungry, food waste means needless greenhouse gas emissions and amounts to a misuse of the land and water required to raise crops and animals.