Rome, August 5 (Mercopress-RHC) -- In Latin America and the Caribbean, more food is lost and wasted than is needed to meet the nutritional needs of the 47 million people who still suffer from hunger in the region, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The report, “Losses and Waste of Food in Latin America and the Caribbean” by the FAO Regional Office, says that 6% of global food losses occur in the region.

FAO Regional Representative, Raul Benitez, explained: “Each year, the region loses or wastes about 15% of its available food, which impacts the sustainability of food systems, reduces local and global availability of food, generates less income for farmers and increases prices for consumers.”

According to FAO, the losses are related to a decrease in the amount of food available for human consumption in phases of production, post-harvest, storage and transport. Food waste refers to losses resulting from the decision to discard food that still has nutritional value.

There are ways to avoid losses and waste in every link of the chain. One example is food banks, which gather food that for various reasons would be discarded for redistribution, and that already exist in Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Mexico.

The Food Banks Association of Mexico, for example, rescued 56,000 tons of food in 2013 alone.