(Op-ed) Leave No “Foodprint”: Technological Innovations to Prevent and Reduce Food Losses and Waste

By Daniela Godoy, Senior Policy Officer in Food Security and Nutrition at FAO’s Regional Office for Latina America and the Caribbean

The United Nations General Assembly established September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste to promote policies that reduce poverty and hunger and help combat climate change.

This is a debate that we cannot ignore. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that in Latin America and the Caribbean, 11.6% of food production is lost between the post-harvest stage and retail, not including the latter. According to figures from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 19% of the total food supply is wasted, including waste in households, food services, and retailers worldwide.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, food losses and waste (FLW) generate a carbon footprint of 300 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), representing about 540 kg of CO2 per person per year, exceeding the world average of 500 kg.

FLW is a global problem with far-reaching economic, social, and environmental consequences, and its prevention and reduction require comprehensive policies and actions promoted by the different sectors and actors in agrifood systems.

Given this, technological innovations appear to be a new solution to reducing the impact of food losses and waste on climate change on our planet.

To prevent and mitigate the impacts of FLWs, it is essential to promote technologies for the efficient use of natural resources and energy that reduce environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions during production processes, prolonging the shelf life of food, maintaining its safety during post-harvest, storage or processing.

Thus, innovative initiatives such as biotechnological methods to transform expired food into raw material for the animal feeding industry, the implementation of smart packaging, or blockchain systems to avoid food waste for reasons that have nothing to do with its safety can make a difference in this matter.

These technologies can also support the move towards circular models to make more efficient use of resources and reuse food loss and waste streams, achieving, for example, the recovery and redistribution of food such as minimally processed fruits, vegetables, cereals, and tubers for social projects or food banks. Likewise, these innovations could make it possible to manage waste in school feeding programs and food services or to plan product marketing and/or rotation at sale points for final consumption.

The prevention of FLW continues to pose regional challenges, such as access to financing for technological innovations, more efficient practices in family farming or small-scale production, and the generation of data to determine how much food is lost or wasted, where in the supply chain it is concentrated, and what the causes are.

Reducing and preventing food losses and waste is essential for transforming agrifood systems into systems that are more efficient, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. This will reduce the climate footprint during production and consumption and contribute to food security and nutrition. Promoting new technologies is a mandate to achieve this.