This report established a widely cited baseline for measuring food waste across household, foodservice, and retail sectors and provides a methodological reference point for comparison.
Background reading
Selected resources for food waste analysis
This page provides the core references behind the project topic, the measurement approach, and the dashboard style. Each source includes a short summary so the page functions as a concise annotated bibliography.
The 2024 edition updates the global evidence base and reinforces why reliable food-waste measurement matters for progress on SDG 12.3.
The Atlas compares food donation policy conditions by country and is the foundation for the policy categories and scoring system used in this project.
FAO's database collects food-loss and food-waste evidence from a wide range of sources and is useful for situating country-level findings within a larger research context.
The World Bank data portal provides the economic and population indicators used to contextualize country comparisons in the dashboard.
ReFED is a useful model for presenting complex food-waste information in a clearer and more interactive way, even though its coverage is focused on the United States.
The USDA provides policy-oriented background material and institutional context, making it a helpful example of how public agencies frame the food-waste issue.
Why these sources were chosen
They connect the measurement layer, the policy layer, and the economic context needed to interpret the dashboard. Together they support a more credible comparison than any single source could provide on its own.
How they support the submission
The sources explain where the numbers come from, why the policy score is structured the way it is, and how the site fits into the wider field of food-waste information systems.