Nestlé becomes 100th member of initiative to cut food waste
The project is a joint initiative from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, aiming to engage industry in tackling food wastage around the world. According to FAO figures, it would take just a quarter of the food lost in production or wasted at retail and at a final consumer level to feed all of the world’s hungry.
Nestlé’s global R&D sustainability manager Dr Anne Roulin said in a statement that the company was committed to reducing food loss and waste from the farm to consumers.
“Reducing food loss and waste is an important part of the journey to be able to feed 9.6 billion people by 2050,” she said. “…The complex issue of addressing food loss and waste can only be tackled through an holistic and collaborative approach.”
The FAO says that $990bn worth of food is currently lost or wasted each year – about seven times the amount spent on development aid in 2011-12.
“In view of the strain on resources it is always more efficient to limit losses along the entire value chain than to step up production,” said Robert van Otterdijk, FAO agro-industry officer and team leader of Save Food.
Save Food has four goals:
- Drawing attention to the problem and raising awareness
- Involving industry to pool the resources of the private and public sectors
- Combining expertise to develop basic strategies and programmes
- Establishing investment programmes to encourage engagement from both public and private organisations
More information about the initiative, including on how to join, is available here.
