Top 10 Countries That Waste The Most Food

As of today, it has been estimated that around 820 million people around the world suffer from hunger and starvation. In fact, one-third of the world's population has nutritional deficiencies. This is a common problem that is occurring in the African continent.

At the same time, in some parts of the world, there are also people wasting a lot of food by throwing most of it away. In most cases, the food that has been thrown out is either unfinished food or raw food that has gone past the expiry date.

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Here we would like to share with you the top 10 countries in the world that waste the most food.

10. Norway

Norway is well known for being one of the safest countries in the world not to mention their health care system. However, the same thing can't be said when it comes to food wastage as Norway definitely has a problem handling them properly.

Most of the food in Norway is imported from the outside and only 3% of the country's land is utilized for agriculture. It has been estimated that Norway throws out 335,000 metric tonnes of food each year.

9. Finland

Unlike its neighboring countries that love to import food from outside, Finland can be said as one of the food hubs in Scandinavia. With that being said, it is also one that wastes a lot of food.

Restaurants, hotels, and cafes are the major contributors to food wastage in this country and it does seem to decrease from year on out. Some of the things that are usually thrown away include bread, fruits, potatoes, and dairy products.

On average, one Finland citizen will throw away 550kg of food every year.

8. Malaysia

One of the Southeast Asian countries that top the list and despite the poverty rate increasing every year in this country, this does not stop the food wastage to increase too. People in urban areas are the ones that put up with this increment.

As a country that has a vast amount of land for agriculture, this is also another factor that causes food waste to increase each year.

According to SWCorp, a company responsible for regulating solid waste management and cleansing, there are roughly 24%(4,005 metric tonnes) of food in the country gets simply thrown away. It is such a sad thing to know as most of this food can come into good use to be given out to those dying of hunger.

7. United Kingdom

Similar to Malaysia, on average the UK citizen wastes almost 560kg of food in a year and 80% of it comes from private residency. The United Kingdom is one of the most developed countries in the world and they import as much as 40% of food from other countries.

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The good thing about the UK is that most of the food here is rather cheap but only if they did not waste as much food as this.

6. Netherlands

The country with the most advanced agricultural technologies in the world also has the same problems that still daunt them to this day. It can be said that every Dutch citizen will waste around 610kg of food annually.

Similar to the UK, most of the food being thrown away comes from the consumer with an average of 42% while the rest comes from the retail and food industry.

5. Canada

Here is one of the Northern American countries to be on this list and it is also another developed country with food issues, A Canadian will waste roughly 640kg of food, and sadly speaking most of them comes from the kitchen in their house.

A big portion of food wastage also comes from hotels, restaurants, and retail shops. Toronto is the major city with the highest food wastage in all of Canada.

4. Denmark

This is another Scandinavian to be on this list and surprisingly in 2019, Denmark was acknowledged as being the safest country in the world to reside. Only 2% of the land in Denmark is put to use for agriculture.

One of the main reasons for food wastage here is that most imported fresh food basically did not last long which leads to food being rancid in the end.

The Denmark government has taken a big step in ensuring people's awareness of food wastage unfortunately things did not work as planned. On average, one person will waste 660kg of food here in Demark.

3. Australia

Home to the native kangaroos and quality meat, it is sad to say that Australians waste as much as 690kg of food per year. The youngsters in the country seem to like to throw the leftovers instead of keeping them for later.

Not just that, the sellers and buyers in Australia prefer to choose the best quality of food and raw products causing most food that is being imported to get rejected before going into the supermarket.

2. Singapore

The Asian king when it comes to food wastage and as a country that imports 90% of food into the country, Singapore has wasted an estimated 774,000 metric tonnes of food every year.

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Rice, bread, and noodles are the common food that is constantly being thrown out. On average a Singaporean will waste 730kg of food each year. Many initiatives have been by the Singaporean government to give awareness among the people on the importance of food wastage.

1. United States of America

Despite being the most developed nation in the world, it has not stopped the country from overcoming this food crisis. The people here are also picky when it comes to food as they would want the best out of them.

Only 50% of the country's yield of agriculture manages to make it into the rack of the supermarket. If the food is not finished which occurred in most cases, it will simply be thrown out.

The size of the platter in this country also contributed to food wastage as you can see that most of them are in huge portions. It has been estimated that every American will waste 760kg of food annually.

All the food that has been wasted is worth somewhere around $50 billion.

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