Food wastage a cause of concern: UNEP

The issue will be taken up during the Governing Council meeting in February next year, UNEP Deputy Executive Director and UN Assistant Secretary General Amina Mohamed said.

"We are raising the awareness among countries on food wastage and telling the governments and others to pay attention to it. In some developing countries it is an issue of distribution and storage," Mohamed told PTI on the sidelines of the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) being held here.

"This problem is going to increase in future if we don't take steps now. We are raising the issue with governments and hopefully will raise it during our governing council meeting," she added.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in its recent report said one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is thrown away or lost, as well as the natural resources used for its production.

Food losses and waste amount to roughly USD 680 billion in industrialised countries and USD 310 billion in developing countries. (MORE)