The Cost of Food Waste in 2025

Ever opened your fridge to discover that forgotten yogurt hiding behind new groceries, months past its date? You're not alone. The data on food waste reveals a significant global challenge—one that impacts both our finances and our planet.

As April draws to a close, we're wrapping up our Earth Day series taking a look at the final link in our food systems chain: the staggering amount of food that's lost or wasted along the way.

Food for Thought: The Scale of the Problem

One-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted each year, requiring farmland equivalent to the size of China to grow. According to BCG, this wasted food carries a price tag of approximately £230 billion. The waste occurs throughout the whole supply chain, with 13.2% of food produced lost between harvest and retail, while 19% is wasted in households, food service, and retail combined. At the consumer level, the most frequently wasted items are fruits, vegetables, and bread.

Food Loss vs Food Waste: Understanding the Difference

Food loss occurs at or near the farm and throughout the supply chain, during harvesting, storage, or transport.Food waste happens at the retail level, in hospitality settings, and in our homes.

Food loss is often associated with developing regions and food waste with more affluent countries. Both issues require coordinated global action.

Where Things Go Wrong

Tracing food along the supply chain reveals several critical failure points:

At the farm level, inefficient harvesting practices, outdated machinery, and crop damage mean perfectly good food never leaves the field.

During transport, poor infrastructure, suboptimal packaging, and inadequate cold storage result in spoilage before products reach their destination. What leaves the farm in perfect condition may arrive at processing facilities or markets significantly degraded.

During food processing, poor planning, outdated equipment, limited data utilisation, and insufficient food-handling expertise create processing waste.

In stores and restaurants, inadequate inventory management, limited measurement capabilities, and gaps in food-handling knowledge drive commercial waste. The commercial pressures of the food business often prioritise aesthetics and abundance over efficiency.

At home, limited awareness of waste impacts, inefficient storage practices, poor meal planning, and confusion over date labelling drive household waste.

The Environmental Impact

The 'foodprint' of what we waste extends well beyond economic costs. When we discard food, we're also wasting all the resources that went into producing it:

• ¼ of all fresh water used in agriculture is ultimately wasted
• ¼ of all fertiliser applied to fields grows food that no one eats
• Food waste drives 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions

If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest polluter in the world, trailing only the USA and China.

Current Solutions Across the Food Chain

Farm-level

Smart Agriculture is transforming how we grow food from the beginning. Precision technology helps farmers harvest at optimal times, apply fertilisers efficiently, and reduce crop damage, maximising yields and minimising waste.

Improved Storage addresses another critical farm-level challenge. Pest damage and mould during storage significantly contribute to food loss. Simple innovations like airtight bags preserve food quality by eliminating oxygen, preventing pest infestation and inhibiting mould growth. Cold storage presents another opportunity for improvement.

Repurposing Waste transforms the concept of agricultural by-products. Rather than treating these materials as waste, innovative companies are finding value in what would otherwise be discarded. Entocycle, for example, uses food waste to feed black soldier fly larvae, which then become protein for animal feed.

Business-level

Distribution networks are implementing advanced tracking systems that monitor products throughout their journey. These technologies record location, duration, temperature, and handling conditions, enabling businesses to extend shelf life, maintain quality, and reduce waste through better logistics planning.

Processing and Manufacturing facilities are finding opportunities for improvement through enhanced staff training, reengineered production processes, and right-sized packaging that minimises downstream waste. Perhaps most significantly, clearer date labelling is addressing consumer confusion about food safety and quality. In fact, WRAP estimates that 200,000 tonnes of edible food are discarded annually in the UK due to misunderstood labels.

Retailers are tackling waste through data-driven approaches, measuring discarded inventory, optimising stock management, and rethinking store arrangements. Many retailers are now accepting "imperfect" produce that would previously have been rejected. WWF estimates a staggering 50 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables are discarded across Europe solely due to "irregular" appearance, for an equivalent of 140 billion euros.

One of our clients, OddBox, has made it its mission to rescue cosmetically imperfect produce by working directly with growers to identify surplus, which is then collected and delivered to customers.

With another innovative approach, Fruit Leather in the Netherlands has reimagined fruit waste. They've developed methods to transform discarded fruit into vegan leather, a versatile material that can be crafted into footwear, apparel, upholstery and more.

Consumer-level

In our homes, simple changes in shopping and storage habits can significantly reduce waste.

Zero Waste Tips You Can Try At Home

1. Give your veggies an ice- bath. If vegetables are looking wilted, try soaking them in ice water for 5-10 minutes to restore crispness. If they're beyond revival, remember they can still add flavour and nutrition to cooked dishes or broths.
2. Transform scraps into flavour. Instead of binning vegetable trimmings, save them to create stocks and broths.
3. Complete the cycle through composting. A head of lettuce takes approximately 25 years to decompose in a landfill, but only 30-90 days when properly composted.

Finally, some creativity while cooking plays a role in waste reduction. To celebrate Stop Food Waste Day, here are practical ideas you can implement in your kitchen: