For Japan to achieve its goal of reducing household food waste by 50 percent by fiscal 2030 compared with 2000, consumers and manufacturers need to change how they think about food, participants at a recent meeting on food loss said.
The goal is part of efforts to meet the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) for 2030, which include halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food loss along production and supply chains. Worldwide food waste amounted to 13 billion tons annually, or one-third of worldwide food production, according to a U.N. report in 2011.
"The volume of food loss in Japan amounts to 6.46 million tons annually. That's twice the volume (3.2 million tons) of food assistance provided worldwide," Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said Tuesday at the meeting of central and local government officials, academics, and local businesses leaders working on the issue.