If you are eating less and healthy food then you will live a long and healthy life. But if you are eating too much food then there is a risk of you falling ill. Despite this opinion of doctors, people in India are eating more than required, falling ill, and also wasting food. According to the new UN report, 8 crore tonnes of food i.e. 55 kg per person is being wasted every year in India. In a country where many people are sleeping hungry every day, these food waste figures are shameful. According to the UN report, be it a country like India or a rich country – the situation is the same everywhere.

According to the new report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) ' Food Waste Index Report 2024 ', 73 crore people were sleeping without eating in 2022. This figure has increased to 78 crores in 2023. In 2022, 50 kg of food per person was being wasted in India. In 2023, 55 kg of food per person is going to be wasted in India. On the one hand, the number of hungry people is increasing and on the other hand waste of food is increasing.

What is the situation around the world?
On an average, every person in the world wastes 79 kg of food in a year. The amount of food being wasted in the world is 30 percent of the total production and a hungry person can get about one and a half meals a day. From this, it is being estimated that 30 percent of the hard work of farmers goes to waste every year.

Who is wasting food
? 61% of food is being wasted in homes, 23% in food service (ie restaurants), and 13% in the retail chain i.e. during supply, storage, or in shops. The annual per capita food wastage in Asian countries is like this -
* India 55 kg
* Pakistan 130 kg
* Afghanistan 127 kg
* Bangladesh 82 kg
* Bhutan 19 kg

According to the report, people are buying more food than required, much of which is thrown away due to expiry date. According to the ICMR report, there are 19 crore people in India who do not get three square meals a day. 14 crore people are sleeping hungry at night. India ranks 111 among 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index. But food wastage is increasing instead of decreasing.

According to an estimate, Rs 68 crore, 10 percent of carbon emissions, and the hard work of farmers can be saved by stopping food wastage in India. According to another UN report, the number of people suffering from malnutrition in India is 16.6%. Apart from this, short-height children are 31.7% and overweight children are 2.8%. At the same time, 76% of people in India do not have access to healthy food.