Environmental Challenges (Jan 2024)
Household food waste: A meta-analysis
Abstract
Household food waste (FW) continues to be an important topic as population growth is rising and thereby global food security is still at large. The amount of data on FW varies widely. Worldwide 78 kg per capita and year of food is wasted, ranging from 10 kg (South Africa) to 189 kg (Nigeria). Global estimates heretofore suggest that households in developed countries waste more food than households in developing countries. We use a systematic literature review based on the UN Food Waste Index Report to carry out a meta-analysis to investigate the differences between countries’ per capita household FW. We use economic and social indicators as well as data collection methods to account for the variations in FW. We find that the amounts of FW are similar for different human development stages, but education significantly reduces FW. A higher GDP, however, goes along with higher levels of FW. West Asia, regions do not show statistically significant differences. The survey method also has an impact on the level of household FW; questionnaires show significantly higher records of FW.
