By KARLITOS BRIAN DECENA, GMA News

Roughly 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The study, titled Global Food Losses and Food Waste, said almost one-third of the food produced for human consumption go to waste, with fruits and vegetables being wasted the most. 

The FAO study, which was made in line with the international congress Save Food! in Sweden on May 16 to 17, distinguished food loss from food waste. It said food loss occurs because of the poor facilities and low technology that are used during the food production process. Food waste, on the other hand, refers to completely edible food thrown as trash. 

North America and Europe have the highest food loss every year, averaging 280 to 300 kilograms a year. They also waste the most food, throwing away 95 to 115 kilograms per year. 

Meanwhile, residents of sub-Saharan Africa and both South and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, have the lowest recorded food losses with 120 to 170 kilograms a year. They also squander the least food, wasting only six to 11 kilograms of food a year. 

Other key findings of the study were: 

Industrialized and developing countries dissipate roughly the same quantities of food — respectively 670 and 630 million tons;

Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons); and

The amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to more than half of the world's annual cereals crop (2.3 billion tons in 2009/2010).

Totally different

Despite being in the region that wastes food the least, the Philippines, where rice is a staple food, is still notorious on wasting tons of rice every year. 

A report on GMA News’ State of the Nation by Kara David cited a study showing that Filipinos throw away three spoons of rice every day. The figure came from the Food and Nutrition Research Institute and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).