Food Waste

Caritas updates on food waste

Enormous quantities of food are thrown away every day.

Over the course of a year, about one third of global food production is lost or wasted.

The problem is the worst in rich countries. In Europe and North America, the average person wastes between 95 and 115 kilograms of food every year. In sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, this falls to 6 to 11 kilograms. But that’s still too much in this age of scarcity and high prices.

Caritas raises awareness about the growing seriousness of food waste as prices rise and food insecurity increases. Some national Caritas organisations redistribute good quality, untouched food through their soup kitchens. It would otherwise be thrown out.

Caritas also campaigns for sensible food production and usage policies and for action to be taken to protect and share global food production.

“Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of the poor and hungry.” Pope Francis

Caritas Updates on Food Waste

food-waste
How Caritas works on Food

Caritas addresses today’s food problems by working on the root causes of hunger and food scarcity. It promotes investment in agricultural and rural development. Part of the solution is also ensuring that communities are made less vulnerable to the more frequent extreme weather brought by climate change. Learn more.

Resources