A new UN-backed report sheds light on the causes of food waste and recommends solutions and actions that could help reduce the 1.3 billion tonnes of food that is lost or wasted along the food chain each year. The report was presented on Thursday by the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Food loss and waste peaks at 280-300 kilogram per capita and year in Europe and North America. Estimates suggest that up to 40% of food produced in the United States is never eaten. “If food was as expensive as a Ferrari, we would polish it and look after it”, said Professor Per Pinstrup-Andersen, lead author of the study. But data on consumer food waste shows that every US citizen wastes food worth $370 per year while British households waste around $580 by throwing out food. In medium and high income countries, consumers “can afford the luxury of wasting food” and “exigencies in aesthetic or other standards” lead to the discard of food, the authors say. In low income countries, most losses occur at production and post-harvest level, for example due to the lack of storage capacity and poor transport infrastructure. Since reasons for food waste are different in each part of the world, solutions have to be local, the report concludes. “Successful reduction of food losses and waste will save resources and has the potential to improve food security and nutrition, goals shared with the Zero Hunger Challenge and the post-2015 sustainable development agenda”, Pinstrup-Andersen said. The report points out that action should be taken throughout different sections of the food chain, from the public and private sectors, civil society, individual producers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. The experts recommended a better integration of production chains and data collection and knowledge sharing about food wastes, as well as developing effective strategies to curb this trend and achieve a better coordination of policies. This is the eighth report the HLPE has released, and was produced in response to a request from the CFS.