Food Waste to Food and Nutrition Security—Need of the Hour

The entire world is marching together toward realizing sustainable development goals (SDG) and renewing the globe by 2030. Of the 17 SDGs framed, the four SDGs, SDG1, SDG2, SDG3, and SDG12, focus on building a healthy realm with goals of No Poverty, Zero hunger, Good health and well-being, and Responsible consumption and production, respectively. The increasing population, COVID pandemic, unemployment, and increasing inflation have created food shortages and thereby food insecurity across many parts of the world. Also, in recent years, because of globalization, urbanization, and increased availability of a variety of foods, there has been a significant rise in the excessive purchase of food, leading to wastage on a large scale. This trend poses a significant threat and contributes significantly to food waste. Additionally, it raises concerns about food security, particularly in developing countries. To a great extent, this can be overcome by minimizing wastage while transporting food from farmstead to table, reducing food waste, wise reuse of the food wastage produced from various food trades, and mobilization of derivatives generated from food processing industries. As per FAO reports, 25% of the food is currently lost or wasted in the world; if redeemed, around 870 million famished population in the world could be fed, of which about 194.6 million, the highest number, will be benefited from India. The time has come to intuit this gargantuan volume of food waste and act swiftly for the benefit of people and nature. Thus, this chapter has been reviewed to provide a clear insight into the role of food waste in food and nutrition security and why it is the need of the hour. The wise use of technology, the acumen for nutritional perspectives of all parts of food, and interest in formulating novel food products from edible wastes can reduce food waste and assure food and nutrition security.