Tons of good food thrown away, study finds

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 12 (UPI) -- Consumers and retailers in advanced economies throw away millions of tons of edible food, a report commissioned by the United Nations said.

A report by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology finds that around 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year.

People in industrial countries are wasting food by throwing much of it away while those in developing countries are experiencing loss because of poor infrastructure and technology, the report finds.

Regionally, the report finds European and North American consumers waste as much as 250 pounds of food per year per person. Their counterparts in Africa and parts of Asia, meanwhile, waste only about 24 pounds of food per year per person.

The report recommends buying food directly from farmers as a way to cut out waste. Charities can also distribute food deemed of good quality but otherwise unsatisfactory to retailers as an alternative to disposal.

"Food losses represent a waste of resources used in production such as land, water, energy and inputs," the study reads. "Producing food that will not be consumed leads to unnecessary CO2 emissions in addition to loss of economic value of the food produced."