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Cradle-to-grave emissions from food loss and waste represent half of total greenhouse gas emissions from food systems

Nature Food volume 4, pages 247–256 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food loss and waste (FLW) are not well characterized from cradle to grave. Here GHG emissions due to FLW in supply chain and waste management systems are quantified, followed by an assessment of the GHG emission reductions that could be achieved by policy and technological interventions. Global FLW emitted 9.3 Gt of CO2 equivalent from the supply chain and waste management systems in 2017, which accounted for about half of the global annual GHG emissions from the whole food system. The sources of FLW emissions are widely distributed across nine post-farming stages and vary according to country, region and food category. Income level, technology availability and prevailing dietary pattern also affect the country and regional FLW emissions. Halving FLW generation, halving meat consumption and enhancing FLW management technologies are the strategies we assess for FLW emission reductions. The region-specific and food-category-specific outcomes and the trade-off in emission reductions between supply chain and waste management are elucidated. These insights may help decision makers localize and optimize intervention strategies for sustainable FLW management.

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Fig. 1: Food and GHG flows of the global food system in 2017.
Fig. 2: Correlations between country GDP and GHG emissions in various food sectors.
Fig. 3: Outcomes of FLW GHG emission intervention strategies.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Supplementary Information and Source Data. Most of the datasets used in the analysis are available publicly, such as from FAOSTAT or the World Bank. The raw data on the food supply are available on the FAOSTAT website and can be accessed at https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home. The raw data on FLW are available on the FAOSTAT website and can be accessed at https://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/flw-data/en/. All other data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The statistical coding is available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Jiangsu Special Project for Introducing Foreign Talents (grant no. BX2019015, K.Y.) and the Key Achievement Cultivation Plan Project of Nanjing Forestry University (K.Y.) for financial support.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jingyu Zhu, Zhenyi Luo, Tingting Sun.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China

    Jingyu Zhu, Zhenyi Luo, Tingting Sun, Wei Zhou & Ke Yin

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Wenxuan Li

  3. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Xiaonan Wang

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China

    Xiaonan Wang

  5. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Xunchang Fei

  6. JFE Engineering Corporation, Singapore, Singapore

    Huanhuan Tong

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Contributions

All authors provided content and reviewed, edited and approved this manuscript. J.Z., Z.L. and T.S. devised the methodology, collected and analysed the data, characterized the materials, wrote the Supplementary Information and reviewed and edited the manuscript. W.L. collected and analysed the data and reviewed and edited the manuscript. W.Z. collected and analysed the data. X.W. reviewed and edited the manuscript. X.F. devised the methodology, structuring and reviewed and edited the manuscript. H.T. conceptualized the project, devised the methodology and reviewed and edited the manuscript. K.Y. conceptualized the project, devised the methodology, wrote the manuscript and the Supplementary Information and reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xunchang Fei, Huanhuan Tong or Ke Yin.

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Zhu, J., Luo, Z., Sun, T. et al. Cradle-to-grave emissions from food loss and waste represent half of total greenhouse gas emissions from food systems. Nat Food 4, 247–256 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00710-3

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