Measuring food waste national baseline and reduction strategies towards sustainable development goal

Abstract

This study aimed to quantify food waste to facilitate reporting aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals for Thailand. The required data was gathered through interviews covering retail, out-home consumption and households. The data collection was based on statistical sampling at a 95% confidence level with a potential error of less than 10% and included direct measurements for at least 10% of the total number of samples. The results indicated that Thailand generated 12 million tons of food waste per year, which mainly came from households (77%). The food waste index of household, food services and retail were 97, 29 and 16 kg/capita/year, respectively. In addition, discarded food waste from households was mainly edible parts (46%) which were disposed through the municipality waste service (84%), followed by using as animal feed (13%), and composting (2%). The main barrier for households in food waste was unplanned cooking, discarded food items, and lacking knowledge on food waste impacts. Raising public awareness along with supporting laws and provided facilities for waste separation were the key issues for policy recommendations. This study represented the first attempt to develop the national food waste baseline that could be useful for performance tracking towards sustainable food waste management.