Researchers are experimenting with new ways of packaging U.S. food aid in a bid to ensure as much of the food as possible feeds the hungry in developing countries and humanitarian crises.
The number of people around the world needing food assistance is at a record high with the U.N.’s World Food Programme currently responding to six hunger emergencies. Flooding and droughts caused by one of the strongest El Niño weather events on record have left millions of people in southern Africa, Asia and Latin America struggling to find food and water. Furthermore, ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and South Sudan mean millions of displaced people are without access to food.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is the world’s biggest food aid donor, contributing $1.5 billion in wheat, sorghum, rice and other food commodities every year, which it ships to ports in Djibouti, Ethiopia and South Africa. It estimates that only 1 percent of that cargo is lost to spoilage, but that means 10,000 tons of food — worth $15 million and enough to feed 200,000 families for a month — goes to waste.