Got Food Waste? There’s an Accounting Standard for That

The farm-to-fork movement now includes food that never makes it onto a fork, thanks to a new standard that helps countries and companies account for the estimated one-third of all food that gets lost or wasted along the way.

Food loss and waste cost the global economy about $940 billion in 2012, according to figures from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Waste is underutilization of an asset. That can apply to food or anything else,” said Kai Robertson, who helped write the world’s first voluntary standard for quantifying and reporting on food loss and waste as ...