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Global school plate waste estimates highlight the need for building a sustainable food education system

Nature Food (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Food waste reduction is essential for supporting the sustainability of food systems. Wasteful behaviours are difficult to change after they have been formed, highlighting the importance of early interventions. Here we present an assessment of school plate food waste from 29 countries, and examine the environmental implications, causes, and interventions. School plate waste ranged from 4% to 46% per capita per meal and was positively correlated with country income levels. On a global scale, this waste embodies ∼150 Mha of cropland and ∼770 MtCO2e of greenhouse gas emissions; hence, reducing school plate food waste offers potentially large environmental gains. We propose a comprehensive, multistakeholder framework centred around sustainable food education that cultivates food systems knowledge and skills, and an appreciation for nature and food labour to reduce the psychological distance between youth and their food waste. To effectively implement the framework requires the support and engagement of families, communities and the broader society beyond the confines of schools.

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Fig. 1: Data distribution by country and by educational level.
Fig. 2: School plate waste in different countries.
Fig. 3: School plate waste grouped by different income and education levels.
Fig. 4: Drivers and interventions of school plate waste.
Fig. 5: A multiagency, multilevel and multimeasure framework for sustainable food education.

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Data availability

All the data that support this study are from public sources clearly referenced in the manuscript with most of the data provided in the Supplementary Information. Detailed calculation processes are provided with this paper as Supplementary Data. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 71874178, X.L., and 52370193, Y.Y.). We thank Y. Gong for helping check data and provide suggestions during the manuscript revision.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Lei Feng, Ruiqi Luo.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Natural Resource Coupling Process and Effects, Ministry of Natural Resources, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Lei Feng, Ruiqi Luo & Xiaojie Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Lei Feng, Weili Li, Jie Song & Yi Yang

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Ruiqi Luo & Xiaojie Liu

  4. Case Western Reserve University, Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Melissa Pflugh Prescott

  5. The National Centre for International Research of Low-carbon & Green Buildings (Ministry of Science & Technology), Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Yi Yang

  6. The Joint International Research Laboratory of Green Buildings and Built Environments (Ministry of Education), Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Yi Yang

  7. College of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Yi Yang

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Contributions

X.L. and Y.Y. conceived the research. L.F., R.L., W.L. and J.S. collected data. L.F. and R.L. performed data processing, data analysis and data visualization. L.F., R.L. and Y.Y. wrote the manuscript. X.L. and Y.Y. provided suggestions. M.P.P. and Y.Y. revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaojie Liu or Yi Yang.

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Nature Food thanks Christine Costello, David Just and Christian Reynolds for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Feng, L., Luo, R., Liu, X. et al. Global school plate waste estimates highlight the need for building a sustainable food education system. Nat Food (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01046-2

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