UN Report: Morocco’s Household Food Waste Soars to 4.2 Million Tons in 2022

4,219,805 tons of food were thrown away by Moroccan households in 2022 compared to 3,319,524 in 2021, a dramatic increase in one year. These are the main findings of the 2024 report on the food waste index released by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in partnership with the British NGO WRAP. This report indicates that the amount of food wasted in Morocco amounts to 113 kg per capita in 2022 compared to 91 kg per capita in 2021. Moroccan households wasted less food than Algerian households (5 million tons of food). Mauritania is the African country that wasted the least food (over 422,000 tons). Egypt recorded 18 million tons of food waste, Tunisia 2.1 million tons, and Libya (nearly 573,000 tons).

On a global scale, the figures are just as alarming. In 2022, 1.05 billion tons of food waste were produced (including inedible parts), or 132 kilograms per capita and nearly a fifth of all food available to consumers. 60% of the food wasted in 2022 was at the household level, 28% in food services and 12% in retail. According to the authors of the report, food waste is not just a "rich country" problem, as average food waste levels differ from average levels observed for high, upper-middle and lower-middle income countries by only 7