Food loss and waste

The document outlines the scale of food loss and waste in South Africa, noting that 27% of produced and imported food was wasted in 2011. It emphasizes a shift in the Western Cape toward mandatory organic waste diversion from landfills by 2027. The brief identifies key drivers for beneficiation, such as the Carbon Tax Act and Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, while detailing barriers including lack of source separation and liability fears regarding food donations. It proposes 29 solutions across prevention, recovery, and recycling categories and advocates for the adoption of the World Resource Institute's FLW Standard for better data recording.

• In 2011, South Africa wasted 27% of its produced and imported food, totaling approximately 10.2 million tonnes. Unlike developed economies where waste is high at the post-consumer stage, South Africa's losses occur primarily earlier in the supply chain: 26% in agricultural production, 24% in post-harvest handling and storage, 25% in processing and packaging, and 20% in distribution and retail, compared to only 5% at the consumer level.
• The economic impact of edible food waste in South Africa was estimated at R61.5 billion in 2011, representing roughly 2.1% of the country's GDP for that year.
• The Western Cape is implementing strict landfill restrictions on organic waste, requiring municipalities to divert 50% of organics from landfills by 2022 and 100% by 2027, a mandate that includes organic waste from businesses.
• Several national and international drivers encourage food waste reduction, including the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030, and the South African Carbon Tax Act (Act 15 of 2019), which allows heavy emitters to reduce tax liability through carbon credits from approved projects.
• Significant barriers hinder the recovery and beneficiation of food waste, most notably the lack of source separation which contaminates organic streams, and the fear of legal liability under Section 61 of the Consumer Protection Act (Act 68 of 2008) regarding the donation of surplus food.
• The document identifies 29 specific solutions for managing food waste, categorized into prevention (e.g., spoilage prevention packaging), recovery (e.g., donation matching software), and recycling (e.g., centralized biogas facilities).
• To address the lack of reliable organic waste data in South Africa, the brief recommends implementing the World Resource Institute's Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard (FLW Standard) to ensure consistent data collection across supply chains.

APA

Smout, S. (2020). Food loss and waste. GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/URBAN_FOOD_WASTE_INDUSTRY_BRIEF_WEB-3.pdf

Chicago

Smout, Sam. Food loss and waste. GreenCape, 2020. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/URBAN_FOOD_WASTE_INDUSTRY_BRIEF_WEB-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Smout |first1=Sam |title=Food loss and waste |publisher=GreenCape |date=2020 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/URBAN_FOOD_WASTE_INDUSTRY_BRIEF_WEB-3.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{smout2020food, author = {Smout, Sam}, title = {{Food loss and waste}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2020}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/URBAN_FOOD_WASTE_INDUSTRY_BRIEF_WEB-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }