Reducing food waste: Is focusing on nutrition or sustainability better?

Reducing food waste: Is focusing on nutrition or sustainability better?

Published Online: April 27, 2025

Written by: Paul McClure

"New research has compared whether food waste is reduced more by consumers who are driven by sustainability or those driven by nutrition and health. With somewhat unexpected findings, the study highlights the need to reconsider our approach to addressing the issue of food waste.

According to the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) 2024 Food Waste Index Report, 19% of food available to consumers in 2022 was wasted at the retail, food service, and household level. That’s 1.05 billion tons of food waste. Meanwhile, in the same year, 783 million people went hungry, and a third of the world’s population faced food insecurity. ..."

Read the full article here. 

Read the Journal Article "Sustainable food consumption: Sustainability-conscious consumers do not reduce food waste but nutrition-conscious consumers do" here.