Contrary to popular belief, household food waste is not the most significant contributor to wastage in the food system. Journalist Sharmila Vaidyanathan reveals how food is lost during every stage of its production and distribution, how preventable these losses are, and the gaps in the system.
If we do not sell the tomatoes in time, the tomatoes will end up selling us out”. Tomato cultivators Sushma and Anil from a village in the Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh uttered these words when Shweta Lamba and Dr. Ruchika Singh from World Resources Institute, India approached them to understand how perishable fruits like tomatoes are lost as they are moved from farms to markets. While the statement reveals the constant angst that tomato cultivators experience, it also shows how food loss and waste are complex issues that impact several stakeholders, the most important among whom are the people who grow this food. Concerns such as price fluctuations, loss of resources, the climate crisis, and food security are deeply intertwined with how much food we lose or waste. To put it quite simply, the problem goes beyond the scraps of food that we often mindlessly discard from our plates.
What do we mean when we say food loss or food waste? Why is this distinction important? How much food are we losing/wasting and at what point in the supply chain is this happening? We attempt to answer these questions as we dive deep into the subject.
Let’s start with you! Do you know how much food you are wasting?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report – 2024, the figure is anywhere between 20-73 kg per capita per year. Additionally, a 2023 study that looked at the potential reasons for household food waste revealed that miscalculations during food preparation, and a general lack of appreciation for food and traditional value systems that ensure minimal food waste, are key factors influencing domestic waste outputs.
Imagine this: India’s population is roughly around 1.45 billion. If we assume that each person in the country wastes about 55 kilograms of food every year, the annual food waste amounts to 79.86 million tonnes*!
Is this where we are wasting most food?
While domestic food waste contributes significantly to the issue of food loss and food waste, it is not the only source. You might have noticed that we mention ‘food loss’ and ‘food waste’ separately. That’s because they are different terms that help us understand where in the supply chain we are losing/wasting food.
Food loss is the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by the food suppliers in the chain, excluding retail, food service providers, and consumers.
Food waste is the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food services, and consumers.
In simple terms, food loss occurs at the farm, post-harvest, or during storage and transportation, while food waste occurs at the retail level, in the hospitality industry, or in households. So, domestic food waste is only one part of an otherwise considerably long chain of food loss and waste.
One of the larger issues in understanding food loss and waste across the supply chain is the fragmentation of data. Different institutions and studies use varying methods for data collection, expressing food loss and waste as a percentage loss, weight of food lost, or as a monetary loss. To understand where we are losing/wasting food the most, we looked at the accompanying monetary lossess:
Food loss on the farm:
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries uses various studies and surveys to estimate post-harvest food losses in India. Two studies were commissioned by the Ministry in 2015 and 2022 respectively. Data gathered by the latter shows that post-harvest losses are highest for fisheries (marine), fruits, and vegetables and lowest for milk. This information is shared as a percentage loss.
Climate Change Aggravates Food Loss
15–25% Reduction
in Wheat Yields
Caused by heatwaves
in 2022.
Milk Yields Reduced
by 15%
As animals experienced a loss of appetite and higher body temperatures.
Losses during processing and transportation:
Losses at the supply chain and logistics stage are incurred when the food is transported from the farm to processing/markets or retail units. Most reports club post-harvest food loss and losses at the supply chain stage together, making it difficult to comprehend their impacts in isolation. A recent research article, Challenges and opportunities for agri-fresh food supply chain management in India, states: “Around 33.1% of total production is wasted each year due to the ineffective and inefficient post-harvest stages of the supply chain in India.”
Bear in mind that the study talks about the total food production in India, which includes everything from cereals to fruits and vegetables. While 33% is an estimate for the overall food produced, the percentage varies depending on the kind of food product. For example, for tomatoes, the waste is around 12.44%, which is roughly about 2.59 million tonnes of tomatoes wasted every year during transport between farms and stores/processing units.
Food Waste in Service and Retail Sectors:
The Food Waste Index Report indicates that there is no identified data to estimate food waste at the service and retail stage.
This Organisation uses Data to Target Food Waste in Commercial Kitchens
LightBlue Consulting attempts to help restaurants curb food waste by including restaurants’ employees and customers in this commitment. Their process involves using resources such as the PLEDGE on Food Waste—a third-party certification that encourages food to be monitored before and during preparation in commercial kitchens—and FIT Food Intel Tech, which tracks restaurants and commercial kitchens’ food and waste production. This tech-driven solution uses data-driven methods to arrive at targeted solutions to efficiently minimise waste and loss at the right junctures in these kitchens.
Through an approach backed by data, LightBlue Consulting was able to help Costa Blanca, a restaurant in Spain, save 48 tonnes of food and rescue 96,460 meals between May 2023 and 2024, thus reducing 120 tonnes of emissions.
“Many chefs and managers view new waste-reducing solutions as an additional burden on their process. Overcoming this starts with understanding the severity of the issue and a mindset shift. With the right tools, these sustainable practices easily translate to cutting costs and saving resources, contributing to the organisation’s larger goals.” Benjamin Lephilibert, Founder & CEO, LightBlue Consulting.
So much of food waste and loss is happening away from my home. I’m starting to wonder if I have anything to do with this?
This is true. We can end the conversation here by saying you should be more mindful of the food you waste at home. But it isn’t that simple. A broader understanding of the issue of food waste and loss will tell us just how much this problem affects us all. Here’s how food waste and loss impacts us all:
This is a resource problem
Food loss and food waste are not just waste management problems. Just think of the number of resources that go into producing food and raising livestock. All of these are lost when the food is not effectively utilised. According to a report by the International Rice Research Institute, on average, producing a kilogram of rice requires about 2,500 litres of water. This is the equivalent of about 125 buckets! That’s the amount of water that also goes to waste every time one kilogram of rice is lost through the supply chain.
This is a nutrition problem
When the contents of food waste were analysed, researchers found that they contained about 57% water, 7.4% protein, 3.7% lipids, and 32% carbohydrates by weight. While this is a generic estimate, depending on the source, food waste also provides ample fodder for nutritive by-products. For instance, coffee sludge or leftover coffee grounds are a good source of dietary fibre.
A recent study by researchers in Poland revealed that adding apple pomace (the residue left behind after processing apples), stale bread, and cornmeal while preparing fresh bread provides a low-cost solution to making bread with high nutritional value through enriched Vitamin B and antioxidants. Did you know that bread made out of pulp that is left behind from making fruit and vegetable juices is touted to be the healthiest bread in the world?
How One Chef is Upcycling Used Grain from Breweries
Historically, bakers and brewers worked shoulder to shoulder because they shared common ingredients. Spent grain—the solid byproduct of brewing beer—was given to the bakers to make bread. In turn, leftover bread was shared with the brewers for brewing and fermenting. Over time, these processes became disjointed, leading to waste generation from the respective industries.
Saving Grains, a Bengaluru-based upcycling company, is collecting spent grain from select craft breweries in the city and turning it into nutritious products like high-fibre granola and atta, and flour for baked goods. As a source of dietary fibre and protein, the spent grain provides a nutritionally rich base ingredient to create quality products.
“While several upcycled products have made their way into mainstream markets internationally, the concept is still in its nascent stages in India. We hope that one day, people will turn to this ingredient as a natural choice for their high-fibre requirements while closing the food waste loop.” – Elizabeth Yorke, founder, Saving Grains
It heightens the impact of the climate crisis
Ideally, all the waste that we produce should be well-segregated and composted or converted to biofuel. Sadly, that isn’t the case, with a lot of food waste ending up in landfills. The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that food waste in landfills contributes to more methane emissions than any other material because of how quickly it decays.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas; it is reported that more than 14% of India’s methane emissionscome from landfills and dump yards. Between January 2019 and June 2023, there have been more than 1,000 occurrences where large amounts of methane were emitted from waste, with India among the leading contributors to these ‘super-emitter’ events. Apart from food waste in landfills, burning of food waste also adds to the country’s growing air pollution problem.
A Chennai-based Initiative Trying to Keep Waste from Landfills
Chennai-based Avris Environment Technologies LLP has devised an innovative solution to tackle food waste through their patented treatment system, CHUGG™. It converts food to biogas at the source while also providing manure. While the system generates energy, that isn’t the primarily goal; the priority is to address food waste. CHUGG™ is currently installed in 25 locations across India, averting 680 tonnes of food waste from reaching landfills annually. It is in use by the defence sector, restaurants and hotels, residential complexes, and a panchayat town in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, where it mainly processes cow dung. The installations are scalable, providing possible solutions for both large and small waste generators.
“Despite the rules and recommendations in place to treat food waste at the source, people don’t follow them. Food waste contributes significantly to the waste that ends up in landfills. Although composting is viable, it is labour-intensive and requires manual intervention. Easy waste treatment techniques are the need of the hour.” – Ravi Ayyangar, co-founder Avris Environment Technologies LLP
Here are a few systemic factors contributing to food loss and waste that are otherwise overlooked
While these issues around food loss and waste are widely discussed, there are others that don’t usually find a mention in the larger dialogues.
→ Lack of Representative Studies on Food Loss and Waste
Ritoja Basu, Program Head, Food Loss and Waste, at the World Resources Institute India, explains why India doesn’t have representative studies on food waste at the national level:
“Conducting representative national food waste studies in India presents unique challenges. Firstly, the studies must include diverse food waste generators—not just households but also restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and food-processing facilities. This requires a broad and inclusive sampling strategy that successfully captures the various sources of food waste. Secondly, the socio-economic diversity in India must be taken into account. Different groups may have significantly different patterns of food waste, influenced by factors such as income, education, and cultural practices. Therefore, the studies need to be designed to acknowledge and address this diversity, ensuring that the findings are relevant and representative,” she says.
→ Price Uncertainty of Key Crops
We often come across news reports about the fall or rise in the price of key crops like tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. The acronym ‘TOP’ is used to describe this phenomenon, which also contributes to food losses. To understand this better, let us take the example of what happened with tomato crops in Karnataka in 2023.
In July 2023, tomato prices rose to about 200 rupees per kilogram, which led to many farmers sowing the crop in the hope of good returns. But in September, large quantities of tomatoes arrived in the markets, causing the crop price to crash drastically to 10 rupees per kilogram. Farmers in various parts of Karnataka had taken up large-scale tomato cultivation. But, in light of the price crash, they were unwilling to harvest the crop as the labour cost involved would be more than what they would get from selling the tomatoes in the market. The farmers had to throw away the surplus harvest as a mark of protest.
This is not a one-time occurrence. If you look at some of the news reports from the past, you will find that farmers have repeatedly had to deal with such price fluctuations. Lack of an understanding of demand and supply dynamics, inadequate safety net for farmers, unpredictable weather, lack of storage facilities, and the perishable nature of these products (especially tomatoes) are among the many factors that influence these scenarios.
→ Lack of Biodiversity in our Diets
While the environmental and climatic aspects of food loss and waste are widely discussed, these issues are also rooted in sustainable cultivation and consumption of food. Radhika Khandelwal, chef-owner of Delhi-based restaurant Fig & Maple, has been vocal about how biodiversity and food waste/loss are intrinsically linked. On social media, she often talks about using indigenous and seasonal ingredients to create interesting dishes, such as a jamun-based kala khatta salad during summer, or spotlighting winter vegetables like carrots, turnips, and figs on the menu
“Using indigenous ingredients is not just a celebration of local biodiversity, it’s also a powerful strategy to combat food waste,” explains Radhika. “Many indigenous plants and wild edibles are not harvested, and when they are, they frequently go unconsumed, only to move from farm to market to landfills. This cycle contributes significantly to food waste,” she says. She adds that awareness towards these ingredients can help transform food systems and ease the pressure on commonly consumed ones. “This will lead to a more resilient food supply, reducing waste generation,” says Radhika.
Rethinking Buffer Margins to Tackle Food Waste
Founded in 2017 by Divya Ravichandran, Mumbai-based Skrap conducts waste audits that examine how much and what kind of waste an organisation or event generates. Beyond segregation and weighing the waste over a 24-hour period, Skrap monitors waste hotspots and the constituents of the generated waste. As Divya explains, if a particular dish is repeatedly wasted in an office, it might be time to rethink the menu. She also shares that one of the biggest mistakes people make is keeping a steep buffer margin, which leads to a lot of excess food. While identifying places where the surplus food can be redistributed is important, Divya emphasises that it needs to be planned in advance to ensure that people get food at the right time without compromising on its quality. Planning, she says, is the main ingredient in organising zero-waste events.
“We get calls from people after an event asking if we can arrange for the excess food to be redistributed. That’s not how it works. It is important to identify NGOs, ideally within 2-3 kilometres of the venue of the event. Packing, transporting, and redistributing the food are time-sensitive activities, and need to be thought through in advance.” – Divya Ravichandran, founder, Skrap
→ The absence of sustainable agriculture
While biodiversity is key to solving many of our food problems, so are sustainable agricultural practices that look at farms as holistic ecosystems, says Vishala Padmanabhan, founder of Bengaluru-based Buffalo Back Collective, where she works with marginal farmers across Karnataka to build sustainable supply chains. “When you talk about processes on the farm, ideally, there should be no loss or waste. Every agricultural output has a purpose, and even in large-scale agriculture, with proper systems in place, one can repurpose all that is produced to feed animals, make manure, etc,” says Vishala.
She cites stubble-burning to illustrate this. Traditionally, crop residues (stalks, leaves, seeds, and other plant material) or stubble would be used to feed the livestock. Crop residues are also composted for manure or to make packaging material. “Changes in land-holding patterns, reduction of livestock, and socio-economic factors, among other reasons, have led to changes in agricultural practices, thereby delinking these systems, generating so-called waste material and aggravating environmental issues,” adds Vishala.
The Ugly Food Movement: How Some Shoppers are Tackling Food Waste
The next time you walk into a supermarket, make sure you notice the fruits and vegetables. All perfectly shaped, bright in colour, hardly a blemish in sight, right? Do you ever wonder why that is so?
Globally, the ‘ugly fruit and vegetable movement’ is steering people towards oddly shaped produce so they are not discarded in the name of consumer preferences. Chef Radhika Khandelwal of Delhi-based Fig & Maple explains that even in restaurant kitchens, shaping and plating fruits and vegetables to make them more visually appealing is unsustainable. “This practice often involves trimming and discarding parts of the produce that are otherwise perfectly edible. In the quest for the perfect-looking plate, restaurants may throw away large portions of food that could be utilised creatively in dishes,” she says.
What are some of the existing measures in India to counter food loss and waste?
Remember those days when we would toss all our waste into one bin and forget about it after it was collected? This approach made it difficult for waste collection agencies to repurpose the material and reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills. You must all have separate bins now for your dry, wet, and reject waste, thanks to the Solid Waste Management Rules which were notified in 2016 by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF & CC). The rules mandate waste segregation at the source to facilitate recovery, reuse, and recycling of the material.
Under these rules, restaurants and hotels are responsible for ensuring that the food waste is utilised for composting or biogas generation within the premises as far as possible or through a civic body like a municipal corporation. Similar rules apply to gated communities, residential and market associations, and other institutions with an area greater than 5,000 square metres.
Local authorities, like the municipal corporation in your city, have framed by-laws based on the larger rules that provide the citizens with a framework to separate and process their waste. For example, Bengaluru’s Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) mandates bulk waste generators (for those who generate more than 100 kilograms of waste) to compost on-site where feasible or through community participation. For vegetable and fruit markets, the BBMP mandates that they store the waste separately. This will then be collected by designated sanitation workers and transported to compost plants. In Panaji, too, waste collection is made more efficient through a ‘Material Recovery Centre’ with the goal of a zero-landfill city, writes Chryselle D’Silva Dias for Scroll.
In 2018, India introduced a Food Waste Reduction Bill which particularly addresses food waste at the retail level, stating: “Supermarkets shall be required to donate their unsold food products still suitable for consumption to authorized charities by entering into contracts with these authorized charities.”
Additionally, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries provides support and incentives for food preservation and processing infrastructure, thereby reducing food loss. Between January and December 2023, 110 projects completed by the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) scheme have resulted in the processing and preservation of 13.19 lakh MT (metric tonnes) of food. Significant advancements have also been undertaken in establishing cold-chain facilities.
Despite so many systems in place, why are we still generating so much waste?
On paper, we seem to have solid (pun unintended) measures to counter food loss and waste. Sadly, waste segregation is not always effective, and a lot of waste does end up in landfills. Let’s understand why this happens.
→ Lack of concerted action; no single-point authority
Ritoja Basu explains that countering food loss and food waste requires collaboration from various stakeholders across the supply chain and the implementation of partnerships that prioritise these issues. However, having a single governing authority that oversees India’s food loss and waste efforts will aid in strengthening the outcomes, she explains.
A Group in Coonoor Taking Ownership of their Town’s Waste
In Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, what began as a post-Diwali clean-up exercise blossomed into a civil society initiative that transformed the hill station and its waste management practices. In 2019, the ‘Clean Coonoor’ programme took over the town’s solid waste management facility and has since regulated waste collection, disposal, and reuse.
On their website, the team publishes a daily synopsis of the amount and type of waste collected. For instance, on 1 August 2024, in terms of food waste, Coonoor generated about 590 kilograms of butcher residue waste, 920 kilograms of market waste, and 6,030 kilograms of household waste. All of this is pulverised and composted by the team. The compost is then sold to the farmers in the region and used for a garden that thrives next to the waste management facility. Through their composting initiatives, the team is able to offset 15 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every month—equivalent to using 7,500 litres of diesel!
“We are shocked to see whole packets of food being thrown away, like bread, cheese, and so on. People have to be more conscious of what they purchase.” – Dr Vasanthan Panchavarnam, team member, Clean Coonoor
→ Need for more food banks to utilise leftover food efficiently
Reports indicate that food banks in India, such as Feeding India and No Food Waste, cater to about six million people across 100 cities. While this might seem like a lot—given that India ranks 111 out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index and about 194 million people in the country are undernourished—it is still a small fraction of the population whose daily food needs are being met by food banks.
Food Banks Are Not The Solution To Undernutrition, says Chef Elizabeth
Food banks, although important, cannot become a critical arsenal in our fight against food waste. As chef and researcher Elizabeth Yorke explains, “Access to food and nutrition needs to be solved in isolation and can’t be a part of the conversation around food waste. We can’t continue to make more food, because it can be channelled to a section of the society that needs it,” she emphasises. Having said that, while we work on implementing strong supply chains along with wholesome food and nutrition programmes, food banks make it possible to address the issue of food waste and hunger, albeit temporarily.
→ Lack of Consumer Awareness
One of the most pressing factors contributing to food waste is a lack of awareness on how mammoth the issue is. “While there is a growing focus on food waste management through waste-to-compost and waste-to-energy initiatives, there is hardly any focus on reducing the generation of food waste. It can only be achieved by changing consumer behaviour,” says Basu. She suggests educating consumers by sharing strategies such as planned shopping, meal preparation, and tips on managing leftovers.
So, what should be our next step?
Food loss and waste are vast topics, and our attempts here have been to give you a strong foundation so you can explore these impacts based on your interests. If you have questions, or would like to add to this discourse, please feel free to reach out to connect@thelocavore.in and share your stories on food loss and waste. We are also sharing some downloadable assets to get you started on your journey. Don’t forget to share your attempts on social media with us.
We would like to give a special shout-out to Daily Dump, an organisation that has revolutionised home-composting and urban food waste management. Founder Poonam Bir Kasturi, aka Compostwali, passed away on 9 May 2024, leaving behind a community of waste warriors who continue to champion her cause. This article is a small tribute to her legacy, and we hope you will follow her footsteps.
Sharmila Vaidyanathan
Reading Sources
Tomato Troubles: Food Loss and Food Waste from Farm to Market by Shweta Lama and Ruchika Singh
Food Waste Index Report 2024. Think Eat Save: Tracking Progress to Halve Global Food Waste by United Nations Environment Programme
Food waste in Indian households: status and potential solutions by Samant Shant Priya, Sushil Kumar Dixit , Sajal Kabiraj , Meenu Shant Priya
Rising temperatures alter insect-crop interactions and impact agricultural productivity by Sharmila Vaidyanathan
Trends and challenges in valorisation of food waste in developing economies: A case study of India by Sujata Sinha, Pushplata Tripathi
‘It’s impossible to breathe’: Delhi’s rubbish dumps drive sky-high methane emissions by Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan
Revealed: the 1,200 big methane leaks from waste dumps trashing the planet by Damian Carrington & Seán Clarke
Revealed: the 1,200 big methane leaks from waste dumps trashing the planet by Damian Carrington & Seán Clarke
Saving the Harvest: Reducing the Food Loss and Waste by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences
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