Where does the world waste its food?

An interactive look at the UN Food Waste Index (2022): how many kilograms of food each person wastes a year, where it happens, how India compares, and what giving a hostel mess advance notice could save.

By Jonty Lohchab, IIM Bangalore · Code & full analysis on GitHub

Compare countries

Food wasted per person per year, split by where it happens. Add any country to compare it with India and the world average.

Household Out-of-home (restaurants, canteens, messes) Retail (shops)
Show as a table

Do richer countries waste more at home?

Each dot is a country. Filter by continent, or hide values the UN likely estimated rather than measured, and watch the correlation update.

Country India

Show as a table

What could advance notice save a hostel mess?

A mess cooks for everyone. When students skip a meal without telling anyone, that food is wasted. Move the sliders to see what advance notice could save in a year. The defaults are working estimates for IIM Bangalore (about 1,300 students eating in the mess).

saved per year
of food not wasted per year
meals no longer cooked for empty seats
For scale: the whole mess
1,300 students × 4 meals a day
Cost per day
Cost per year

This assumes the mess really does cook less when it gets notice. That's exactly what Mess Saver, the app I'm building for IIM Bangalore, is designed to support: students mark skipped meals at least 24 hours ahead, and the mess gets a daily headcount report.