UK - A third of the world's food is lost before it ever reaches anyone's plate, a panel of global experts has warned as it called for a war on waste to improve worldwide diets. Waste and spoilage in harvesting, storage, transport and shops accounts for an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food a year and squanders huge amounts of resources. At the same time, poor diet is now more of a threat to public health than infectious diseases like malaria and measles, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition said. Food rich in nutrients vital for a healthy diet, such as fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, dairy products, and seeds and nuts is particularly prone to going off, or being wasted. The panel led by the UK's former chief scientific adviser, Sir John Beddington, estimated the value of wasted food reaches $1 trillion (£777 billion) each year.