Press Release

TORONTO, ON, April 12, 2022 – Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization, today released new research examining the amount of surplus edible food that is produced and wasted in Canada each year by Canada’s food system. Conducted in partnership with Value Chain Management International, a leading public and industry voice in food waste, the new report, Wasted Opportunity, found that 96 percent of surplus edible food in Canada’s food system is wasted instead of being rescued and donated to feed those in need.

“Canada’s food system wastes almost all of the surplus edible food it produces, when it could be rescued and redistributed to people experiencing hunger,” said Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest. “Our research found only four per cent of the surplus edible food available is being rescued and redistributed, with the balance going to animal feed, anaerobic digestion or landfill where it creates methane gas and is a direct contributor to climate change.”

Featuring ground-breaking research into Canada’s food system, Wasted Opportunity explores what types of food, from where, end up in landfill and seeks to explain why so much of this surplus edible food is not being rescued. The report proposes solutions for business and policy makers to turn this edible food waste into opportunity for everyone involved. 

This research is the first in Canada to quantify:

• The 3.2 million tonnes of surplus edible food produced by Canada’s food industry each year
• The 96 percent of surplus edible food that is NOT rescued and redistributed for human consumption
• The 127,177 businesses that are potential donors of surplus edible food within Canada’s food industry
• The 45 percent of these businesses that believe they have surplus edible food
• The regions that are more likely to have surplus edible food 
• The industry sectors that say they have surplus edible food, and the percentage that each sector donates
• The types of surplus edible food produced in Canada’s food industry
• The extent to which businesses DO NOT measure and monitor surplus edible food, and the reasons why

“With nearly two-thirds of Canadians reporting difficulty feeding their families, a number that will only get worse in the face of record-high inflation, it is vital to take action and make changes to Canada’s food system,” said Nikkel. “We produce more than enough food to feed everyone in Canada and yet people still do not have the food they need. We have an obligation to our people, and our planet, to value food appropriately so businesses have an incentive not to waste perfectly edible food.”

Wasted Opportunity is Second Harvest’s third report in a series that began with The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste (2019), a roadmap showing how almost nine million metric tonnes of food produced for Canadians is lost or wasted every year. The second report, Canada’s Invisible Food Network (2021), was the first report to reveal the massive, invisible patchwork of over 61,000 community organizations that distribute food to people in need. All three Second Harvest reports can be downloaded from https://www.secondharvest.ca/resources/research

Members of the media are invited to attend an in-person or virtual presentation of the research today, Tuesday, April 12 at 9 a.m., with Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest and Dr. Martin Gooch of Value Chain Management International. Q&A will follow. The in-person presentation is at Second Harvest’s new location at 120 The East Mall, Etobicoke. Those attending online can register for the virtual presentation at:  https://www.ineventors.com/secondharvest-wastedopportunityvirtualevent/

Second Harvest would like to thank the Walmart Foundation for their continued support of Second Harvest through providing the necessary funding for this study, as we all work towards sustainable solutions that will drastically reduce the amount of food that is lost and wasted across the Canadian supply chain.

About Second Harvest

Second Harvest is Canada’s largest food rescue organization and an expert in perishable food recovery. Every year we expand our network with industry to include more farms, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and food service. We work with thousands of businesses across the food supply chain, to reduce the amount of edible food going to waste, which in turn stops millions of pounds of greenhouse gases from damaging our environment. The food Second Harvest recovers is redirected to charity and non-profit organizations, ensuring people have access to the healthy food they need. Second Harvest is a global thought leader on food loss and waste and perishable food rescue and delivery and continually innovates processes and shares methods, to create a better future for everyone. 

About Value Chain Management International
 Value Chain Management International (VCMI) has authored/co-authored several publications on food loss and waste and is a leading public and industry voice in bringing awareness to the opportunities and solutions surrounding food waste reduction, traceability, and the environment. VCMI measures waste within the overall analysis of food systems to create pragmatic and sustainable solutions for businesses and industry organizations along the value chain. VCMI applies specialized value chain diagnostic tools to detect where waste occurs and to determine how to eliminate it. VCMI then participates in the implementation of new practices to solve the issues and ensure successful outcomes. www.VCM-International.com