How traceability can unwrap our food systems to give visibility on loss and waste

The food industry is one of the largest and most vital sectors, feeding over 8 billion people and employing half of the global workforce. However, it faces significant challenges, including rising demand, environmental degradation and food insecurity.

One of the most pressing and addressable issues at the heart of these challenges is food loss and waste (FLW). Food loss refers to edible food that is discarded along the supply chain before reaching consumers, while food waste occurs at the consumption stage, such as in retail and households. FLW represents not only a critical obstacle, but also a key opportunity to combat climate change.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately one-third of all food produced globally – around 1.3 billion tonnes – is lost or wasted annually. This isn’t just an economic and humanitarian issue considering the millions facing hunger; it's also an environmental one.

The direct result of this FLW means 30-40% of the world’s agricultural land and water use, chemical inputs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be avoided. If FLW were a country, it would be the third-largest GHG emitter after the US and China.

Tackling FLW across the supply chain requires innovative solutions, and traceability is proving to be a critical enabler. While essential for ensuring food safety, traceability also unlocks greater impact when combined with emerging technologies. It enhances supply chain efficiency, prevents FLW and paves the way for a more sustainable food system.

Food traceability is the ability to track any food or ingredient through all stages of production, processing and distribution.

We often talk about traceability in terms of systems, referring to the totality of data and operations to maintain important information about a product and its parts throughout its production and use. This includes data (e.g. location), unique IDs (e.g. barcodes or radio frequency identification [RFID] tags), sensors and the digital systems (e.g. blockchain) that store and record the information.

Traceability helps ensure food safety by quickly identifying and removing contaminated products (referred to as product recall), protecting public health and meeting food safety regulations. It is also a key enabler for businesses to verify sustainability claims (e.g. sustainable sourcing) related to their products to meet consumer demand for transparency.

Beyond ensuring safety and transparency, food traceability can also help supply chain participants identify potential inefficiencies that drive FLW.

FLW is estimated to cost the global economy $1 trillion annually and impacts every part of the food supply chain. For growers, this means lost investments in labour and agricultural inputs for crops that never reach consumers. For retailers, it leads to higher disposal costs and inefficient demand forecasting.

Tackling FLW can unlock value across the entire food system, starting with understanding where and why food is being lost or wasted.

In the upstream supply chain, prior to reaching the retailer, 13% of food is lost – a figure that is even higher for perishables like fruits and vegetables. Poor storage, handling and inefficient transportation, especially in developing countries, contribute to this. For temperature-sensitive goods, inadequate cold chain storage is a key cause of premature spoilage.

Further downstream – at the retail, food service and household levels – another 19% of food is wasted. This happens for several reasons like overstocking, strict appearance standards that lead to retailers discarding edible fruits and vegetables, and consumers buying more than they use – especially in developed countries.

Efforts to address FLW are underway, with UN’s global 2030 food waste target. While most regulations prioritize downstream food waste, the recent EU regulation and global voluntary efforts, such as the World Resources Institute’s 10x20x30 initiative, are driving progress in reducing upstream losses.

Addressing FLW starts with identifying inefficiencies in the supply chain – where traceability can play a critical role. By providing timely, accurate access to relevant operational data across actors, traceability enables visibility into the “where”, “when” and “how” of food movement.

When integrated with emerging technologies, traceability systems become significantly more powerful. Innovations such as the internet of things (IoT), food sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) generate richer, real-time data and deliver actionable insights – empowering businesses to make faster, smarter decisions that help prevent FLW.

For instance, IoT-enabled sensors can monitor real-time temperature and humidity during storage and transport, alerting when issues occur to enable timely interventions to prevent spoilage. Similarly, food-sensing technologies like hyperspectral imaging improve the accuracy of quality assessment during food inspections; paired with AI, they enable early issue detection and predictive shelf-life analytics.

To fully realize the potential of these innovations, technology alone isn’t enough; collaboration, and data-sharing especially, are key. Building a more transparent, efficient and accountable food system depends on stronger partnerships across the value chain, from producers to distributors to retailers.

The Circulars Accelerator Network, a partnership between Accenture, the World Economic Forum, and UpLink, collaborates with startups and stakeholders to address food loss using traceability and emerging technologies.

Food Innovators Network, part of the World Economic Forum’s Food Innovation Hubs Global Initiative, connects over 200 global innovators, including experts, entrepreneurs and farmers. It fosters a dynamic space for networking and knowledge exchange, focusing currently on protein innovation and data readiness for food systems.