Top 10 Countries With Highest Food Wastage

A man in a remote village of Africa is battling for his life out of hunger while at the same time a man dumps gallons of food waste collected from a restaurant in a city in Germany. We see that food is the unfortunate thing that has been taken for granted in the world today. And some countries of all seem to be wasting hundreds of thousands of tons of food every year much more rapidly than they should.

the list of top ten countries with highest rate of food shortage. To our surprise, there are some 'developed' countries which happen to waste the most food-

1. Denmark

One of the Scandinavian countries, Denmark is known to have one of the most exquisite lifestyles with organized system of healthcare, transportation and other facilities in place. The darker is probably less known to the world. Reports reveal that people here waste excess amounts of packed and unpacked food item and drinks. Estimates declare that 660 kilograms of food per person is wasted here, most of which is generated from restaurants, cafes, catering centers and houses. Many awareness programs have been initiated in Denmark to control this situation but none gave positive results.

2. Netherlands

Netherlands is one among the countries that wastes food the most. The Dutch economy wastes as much as 610 kilograms of food per person per annum. A series of food saving projects have been initiated so far in Netherlands intending to bring awareness among people but nothing has given out any fruitful results.

3. Germany

Wastage of food here not just includes junk food but a large amount of veggies and fruits as well. People in Germany throw away huge amount of valuable veggies and fruits annually. About 20 million tons of food is being wasted in Germany each year, with an average of 540 kilograms being wasted per person.

4. United Kingdom

The kingdom where the sun never sets. It is said that each person in the United Kingdom wastes about 560 kilograms of food per person year. UK may be the most developed nations in the world today but it is also one of the countries with highest rate of food wastage. Sadly, 80 percent of the food waste is from the houses and residents in the country. Perhaps the English are not aware of food scarcity.

5. Malaysia

It is ironic that Malaysia has some serious poverty concerns and also it is one among the countries which wastes most food. Urban Malaysia is said to be generating most amounts of food waste. Fruits, vegetables, and bakery items comprise the most of the food waste here. As per the statistics each person is said to be wasting 540-560 kilograms of food per year.

6. Finland

Joining the list of countries that wastes most food, the Finnish waste about 550 kilograms of food every year. Finland being a prominent food manufacturing hub happens to be wasting a significant amount of food as a large part of the waste food comes from houses and food manufacturing brands. Large amounts of bread, fruits, bakery items, potatoes, homemade food and bakery dairy products would leave us in tears.

7. United States of America

The pseudo-Super power of the world surprises us all in this list of shame. Yes, U.S. is a strong nation but if its strength is at the cost of $48.3 billion worth of food waste then it is not worth the power. Also, 50 percent of food is wasted from harvest, which shows the unsustainable agricultural practices followed in the States.

8. Australia

Australia, the land down under gets a spot in the list of countries with highest rate of food wasted. Estimates show that the Australians waste 690 kilograms of edible food, per person per year. Surveys show that the reason for such massive amounts of food waste is the excessive purchase of eatables at cheap prices which once expired are dumped without being used at all.

9. Canada

One of the highly civilized nations in the world, Canada happens to have some barbaric practices, like wasting immense amounts of food. It seems that they have no awareness of the importance of food. 640 kilograms of food per person per year goes wasted in Canada. Of all the cities, Toronto wastes the biggest quantity of food every year.

10. Norway

Norway is no doubt ranked one of the safest nations in the world it is also one of the nations with best healthcare and sanitation facilities. It is rather bizarre to find such a country on the list. However the country wastes 3, 35, 000 tons of food from houses and offices making Norway a country with highest rate of food waste.

So, here we go living in a world where one wastes food because it is excess and the other feels blessed if it gets to eat one morsel for the whole day. It is time that we realized food wastage is directly proportional to food scarcity.

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Reader's comments(2)
1: What are your sources? Where did the data come from? Germany #3 with 540 kg per person, but Finland #6 with 550kg per person? But the USA is measured in terms of dollars worth of food wasted? Of course, no one should ever trust an article that does not say where the information comes from. Less trustworthy articles have obvious flaws interpreting information.
Posted by: PC Principal - 22 Mar, 2021
2: Thanks for your input. I thought as much. How can you state facts like this without references? This article is not worth taking like a pinch of salt at all.
Emmy replied to: PC Principal post - 10 Jun, 2021