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Food eaten/lost (million tons)

Fresh fruits and

vegetables

Fluid milk

Processed fruits and veg

Meat, poultry and fish

Grain products

Caloric sweeteners

Fats and oils

Other foods (including

eggs and other dairy products)

Food eaten Food lost

0

5

10

15

20

25

products and on its scale of production. There is no indication

that marine fisheries today can sustain the 23% increase in

landings required for the 56% growth in aquaculture produc-

tion required to maintain per capita fish consumption at cur-

rent levels to 2050. However, if sustainable, the amount of fish

currently discarded at sea could alone sustain more than a 50%

increase in aquaculture production. However, many of these

species could also be used directly for human consumption.

Fish post-harvest losses are generally high at the small-scale

level. Recent work in Africa by FAO has shown that regard-

less of the type of fisheries (single or multi-species), physical

post-harvest losses (that is, fish lost for human consumption)

are commonly very low, typically around 5% (DieiOuadi, 2007).

Downgrading of fish because of spoilage is considerable, how-

ever, perhaps as high as 10% and more. Hence, the total amount

of fish lost through discards, post-harvest loss and spoilage may

be around 40% of landings (DieiOuadi, 2007).

The potential to use unexploited food waste as alternative

sources of feed is also considerable for agricultural products.

(Figures 11 and 12).

Food losses in the field (between planting and harvesting) could

be as high as 20–40% of the potential harvest in developing

countries due to pests and pathogens (Kader, 2005). Posthar-

vest losses vary greatly among commodities and production ar-

eas and seasons. In the United States, the losses of fresh fruits

and vegetables have been estimated to range from 2% to 23%,

depending on the commodity, with an overall average of about

12% losses between production and consumption sites (Cap-

Figure 11: Food losses for different commodities.

(Source: Kantor

et al

., 1999).

0

1 000

Field

Household

2 000

3 000

4 000

Edible crop

harvest

4600 kcal

After

harvest

4000 kcal

Meat

and dairy

2800 kcal

Harvest

losses

Animal

feed

Available

for household

consumption

2000 kcal

Distribution

losses and

waste

Figure 12: A gross estimate of the global picture of losses, con-

version and wastage at different stages of the food supply chain.

As a global average, in the late 1990s farmers produced the

equivalent of 4,600 kcal/capita/day (Smil, 2000), i.e., before

conversion of food to feed. After discounting the losses, conver-

sions and wastage at the various stages, roughly 2,800 kcal are

available for supply (mixture of animal and vegetal foods) and,

at the end of the chain, 2,000 kcal on average – only 43% of the

potential edible crop harvest – are available for consumption.

(Source: Lundqvist

et al

., 2008).