For many in the food industry in Canada, food waste is a big deal. It is also a very expensive issue.

According to a report from Toronto’s Second Harvest, a staggering 46.5 per cent of food produced in Canada is wasted — with 41.7 per cent considered potentially avoidable. In addition to being a waste of resources, this represents $58 billion in annual losses for the industry.

With this in mind, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group decided to do something about it. The organization has released CSA K100, Food loss and waste – Terminology and measurement. It’s an all-encompassing effort to get a handle on this issue.

“If you’ve ever tried to compare food loss across a grower, a processor, a grocery chain, and food service, it’s very difficult, and not because anyone is hiding the data," Lori Nikkel, vice-chair of the CSA Technical Committee on Food Loss and Waste and the CEO of Canada’s largest food rescue organization, Second Harvest, said during an introductory technical briefing about the initiative. "Every part of the chain has been measuring different things, calling them different names and reporting in different units. Some count by weight, some by retail value, some call it loss, some call it shrink, some call it waste.

“Until everyone speaks the same language, we cannot compare, set baselines or measure progress. K100 closes that gap.”

How to accurately measure waste

The standard was designed to help food producers define, measure and reduce food waste, Nikkel said.

“It measures not just what to count but how, where and what to do with the data, methods, checkpoints and reporting practices, and reduce. This is where the standard becomes strategic: pointing to alternatives like donation and redistribution, animal feed, upcycling and anaerobic digestion, with a framework for choosing among them.”

This effort took about two and a half years, she said.

“The technical committee TCS 2075 was established in October 2023 with broad representation across the food system: primary producers, processors, retailers, food service, food rescue, governments, environmental organizations, academics and industry associations.”

The CSA is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada to establish standards across a variety of sectors and industries. It was established in 1919 and today includes over 11,000 members, according to the organization.

Standard to become industry ‘how-to’

Before the food waste standard was finalized however, a research report was published in February 2025, followed by a public review in August. A formal ballot in January 2026 helped establish the new standard, according to Nikkel.

“Three things the standard delivers: measurement and characterization of food loss and waste, data collection and monitoring practices, and evaluation of the associated environmental impacts.”

The document is intended to become a “how-to” for those in the industry.

“The standard set out a measurement plan in five steps. Step one: identify the types and causes of food loss and waste in your operation. Notice that this comes before any measurement. If you don’t understand what’s driving your loss, accurate numbers still won’t tell you what to do,” Nikkel said.

Next step is to measure what is being lost, and “step three, identify where it’s going: landfill, compost, anaerobic digestion, donation, animal feed, upcycling,” Nikkel said during the briefing.

The last two steps involved a calculation of the cost of the food loss and finally, “internal reporting; external reporting on food loss and waste initiative is recommended, and in our experience, that’s where the real progress happens,” she said.

How does food waste happen?

The reasons for the volume of food loss are varied. “Starting at primary production: farms, fisheries, ranches, causes of food loss and waste (include) weather damage, overproduction to meet contractual obligations, last-minute order cancellations from buyers; where to measure, checkpoints: at harvest, at sorting, at pre-processing, at storage, including unharvested mature crops or crops plowed back into the soil,” Nikkel explained.

This also happens in the retail and food service sector with such things as food prepared but not served, surplus inventory or food prepared improperly, she said.

In order to address this, the standard includes five principles for choosing where the waste should go.

First is to avoid food leaving the supply chain “through prevention upstream or through food donations and redistribution where surplus does occur.”

As well, producers and retailers should attempt to transform food waste, followed by recycling the waste “so anaerobic digestion with digestate used as soil amendment or growing substrate and composting,” Nikkel said.

Finally, producers should look to avoid loss of food energy and when no recovery is possible, they should “minimize harm; controlled combustion without energy recovery, landfill, sewer, wastewater treatment,” she said.

Part of food security strategy

While the standard remains voluntary, there is a path for governments to reference it in future legislation, making it mandatory.

By publishing the standard, it fits into some recent plans established by the federal government.

“Canada is developing a national food security strategy, and one of the pillars that we’re working on is that food waste strategy," Nikkel said, "and this standard has been discussed ad nauseam, that this is a really important part that we need to include in the food security strategy for Canada."