UK and Europe urged to cut food waste in order to combat global food insecurity

Europe is one of the dominant areas for post-harvest research, yet makes a relatively low contribution to global food loss
Europe is one of the dominant areas for post-harvest research, yet makes a relatively low contribution to global food loss

Looking at the issue of food waste is needed if the world is going to tackle global food insecurity, a British agri-food expert has said.

According to Professor Leon Terry, Director of Environment and Agrifood at Cranfield University, a paradigm shift in funding strategies and research programmes is needed to tackle food waste on a global scale, from farm-to-fork.

Every year, UK households waste £12.5 billion on 7 million tonnes of food and drink that is bought and subsequently discarded, according to a Defra report.

Speaking on Wednesday (3 January) at the Oxford Farming Conference, Professor Terry said that in order to address the global threat of food security, research needs to be directed at both increasing crop production and minimising waste.

He points out that emphasis has been put on increasing future crop production, with far less resource being channelled towards enabling both established and innovative food preservation technologies to reduce food waste.

Post-harvest waste

In a recent paper, Cranfield University researchers say that assessing the global scale of food waste is challenging, with question marks over the extent and accuracy of post-harvest loss and waste data.

They also argue that there is a paucity of active research being conducted in areas where post-harvest fresh produce loss is greatest.

For example, Europe is one of the dominant areas for post-harvest research, yet makes a relatively low contribution to global food loss.

In Africa, which contributes approximately 18% of global post-harvest food losses, they suggest the research base is too low across the continent, with the majority of research stemming from South Africa.

'Dual-pronged solution'

Professor Terry argues that UK research funds should be used to address this imbalance.

He said: “The global threat to food security requires a dual-pronged global solution focused on increasing crop production and reducing food waste.

“However, across the world, we see much greater emphasis on research funding programmes that focus on increasing production rather than also improving preservation and reducing waste.

“If we are to address the global challenge of food security we need to see a paradigm shift in current funding strategies and research programmes that will encourage the development and implementation of collective solutions to better preserve and utilise food.”