In U.S. households, around 150,000 tons of food is thrown away every day, working out at roughly one pound per person. And it doesn’t stop there. With some 88 million tons of food wasted in the European Union each year, and approximately a third of produce in Asia resigned to landfills, the food waste problem is an epidemic. Yet the bulk of food thrown away doesn’t even reach consumers.

Let’s take a closer look at the areas of manufacturing that are prone to food waste, and how they can be optimized to help tackle the issue.