Ministry of the Environment Announces FY2023 Food Loss at 4.64 Million Tons—An 80,000-Ton Reduction Year-on-Year, but Still Halfway to the 2030 Target

The Ministry of the Environment announced thatfood-loss generation in Japan in FY2023 (Reiwa 5) was about 4.64 million tons. This is a reduction of 80,000 tons from about 4.72 million tons in the previous fiscal year (FY2022), and a steady improving trend continues. However, achieving the government's FY2030 target still requires a substantial reduction, and the situation calls for accelerating efforts across both the public and private sectors.

FY2023 breakdown: 2.31 million tons business-related, 2.33 million tons household

The breakdown of the data announced this time is as follows.

Reduction is progressing in both the business-related and household categories, but seen in terms of scale, the reality that a huge volume of 4.64 million tons of food a year is still discarded is weighty. The continued implementation of various measures based on the Act on Promotion of Food Loss Reduction (enforced in Reiwa 1) supports this reduction trend.

The gap with the 2030 target: a situation still halfway to achievement

As numerical targets for food-loss reduction, the Japanese government has set outhalving household food loss versus FY2000 and reducing business-related food loss by 60% versus FY2000 by FY2030.The 2030 target for food-loss reductionFor details, please also refer to this article.

FY2000 food-loss generation is said to have been about 9 million tons, so for the household category the calculation is that reduction has progressed to roughly half of that time, but there is still a gap toward the 60% reduction target for the business-related category.Record reduction in food loss in 2023Together with related trends, the future trajectory draws attention.

Household food loss in particular is directly tied to individual consumption behavior, so awareness activities and coordination with retail and dining are essential.Too Good To GoThe spread of food-sharing services likeand the development of a food-bank certification system,approaches from both the private sector and government are progressing.

The background of reducing food waste: ripple effects across all of agriculture and distribution

Reducing food loss is also an important effort from the standpoint of lowering disposal costs and curbing greenhouse-gas emissions. Reducing the waste that occurs across the entire supply chain—from agricultural production to processing, distribution, and consumption—is directly tied to building a sustainable food system.

Also, for vegetables, the proportion of off-spec and surplus product discarded after harvest is high.Vegetable shortage and the use of dried vegetablesIncluding such perspectives, an approach that combines food-loss measures at the production stage with value-added proposals to consumers will likely grow further in importance going forward.

The Ministry of the Environment states it will continue to promote measures toward food-loss reduction, and future policy trends toward achieving the 2030 target draw attention.

(Source: Ministry of the Environment press release https://www.env.go.jp/press/press_00002.html）