Every day, more than one billion meals are thrown away. Not by restaurants or supermarkets — by ordinary households, in kitchens just like yours. While 783 million people around the world go hungry, the rest of us are quietly wasting enough food to feed them all.
These are not estimates from decades ago. These are the findings of the UN Environment Programme's Food Waste Index Report 2024 — the most comprehensive study of global food waste ever published. The numbers are hard to read. They are also impossible to ignore.
The global picture
In 2022, the world wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food. That is roughly one fifth — 19% — of all food available to consumers. To put that in perspective: for every five bags of groceries you carry home from the supermarket, one of them ends up in the bin.
The average person wastes 79 kilograms of food every year. That is roughly the weight of an adult human being, in food, thrown away annually per person.
Most of this waste — 60% of it — comes from households. Not from industry, not from retail. From homes. From fridges where things get forgotten. From kitchens where inspiration runs out and takeaway gets ordered instead.
The United States
The United States generates 24.7 million tonnes of household food waste every year, making it the fifth largest food-wasting country in the world by total volume.
For an average American family of four, food waste translates into a financial loss of around $1,500 every year — money spent on groceries that end up in the bin rather than on the table.
The pattern is consistent: consumers in the US collectively throw away more food than all retailers combined. The problem is not in the supply chain. It is in the kitchen.
Europe
Europe is not doing much better. The EU alone wastes around 59 million tonnes of food every year. According to Eurostat data from 2025, households generate more than half of the total food waste in the EU — 53% — amounting to 69 kilograms per person per year.
Food waste accounts for approximately 16% of the EU food system's total greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the EU's fifth largest emitter.
A four-person household in Europe would save an average of €400 per year simply by halving the food they throw away. That is not a small number. That is a weekend away, a new appliance, or months of groceries.
Why does this happen?
The statistics are striking, but the causes are surprisingly ordinary. Food gets wasted at home for a handful of recurring reasons.
Ingredients bought for a specific meal get forgotten after one use. Items at the back of the fridge become invisible until they have already expired. No one is sure what is actually in the pantry, so duplicates get bought. Inspiration runs out at 6pm and takeaway gets ordered instead — leaving fresh food unused for another day, then another, until it is too late.
None of this is carelessness. It is the natural result of having no clear picture of what you have and no easy way to turn it into a meal.
The solution starts at home
The UN's goal is to halve food waste globally by 2030. Governments, retailers and food producers all have a role to play. But so does every household — because households are where most of the waste actually happens.
The most effective thing an individual can do is simple: cook from what you already have, before it expires, instead of buying more.
That requires two things: knowing what is in your fridge, and having enough inspiration to turn it into something edible. The first is a visibility problem. The second is an inspiration problem. Both are solvable.
This is exactly what what2cook is built for. You add your ingredients, the app tracks what you have and when things are likely to expire, and Gemini AI suggests recipes using exactly what is already in your kitchen. No extra shopping. No forgotten chicken. No €400 quietly disappearing into the bin every year.