Almost half of the world's food thrown away, report finds

clock

Figures from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers show as much as 2bn tonnes of food never makes it on to a plate

As much as half of all the food produced in the world - equivalent to two billion tonnes - ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday. The UK's Institution of Mechanical...

To continue reading this article...

Join BusinessGreen

In just a few clicks you can start your free BusinessGreen Lite membership for 12 months, providing you access to:

  • Three complimentary articles per month covering the latest real-time news, analysis, and opinion from Europe’s leading source of information on the Green economy and business
  • Receive important and breaking news stories via our daily news alert
  • Our weekly newsletter with the best of the week’s green business news and analysis

Join now

 

Already a BusinessGreen member?

Login

More on Waste

'Dressed up like sweets': Government proposes packaging and display restrictions on vapes

'Dressed up like sweets': Government proposes packaging and display restrictions on vapes

Department of Health and Social Care proposes marketing crack down on 'one of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging and dangerous consumer products ever sold'

Stuart Stone
clock 13 July 2026 • 4 min read
KFC, McDonald's, and Nestlé-backed pilot cuts litter by 16 per cent

KFC, McDonald's, and Nestlé-backed pilot cuts litter by 16 per cent

Year-long Keep Britain Tidy programme to crack down on litter delivers 22-percentage-point increase in public satisfaction

Stuart Stone
clock 06 July 2026 • 3 min read
Co-op and Deliveroo team up to deliver new food waste initiative

Co-op and Deliveroo team up to deliver new food waste initiative

Co-op launches £3 produce bags on Deliveroo that offer up to £36 worth of reduced-to-clear fruit and vegetables

clock 12 June 2026 • 2 min read