France holds a perfect policy score of 18/18 — the only country in the dataset to achieve this — yet its total food waste per capita (120 kg) is nearly identical to the United States (121 kg), which scores just 11/18. This challenges the assumption that stronger legislation directly produces less waste.
When we map policy scores against food waste per capita across all 28 countries [1] [2], no clean linear relationship emerges. Countries with the strongest legal frameworks — France and Canada, for instance — do not cluster at the low-waste end of the spectrum.
Countries like Nigeria (201 kg/cap, score 6/18) and Australia (141 kg/cap, score 7/18) confirm that high waste appears across multiple policy tiers. Meanwhile, Vietnam achieves just 70 kg/cap with a policy score of only 5/18 — among the lowest in the dataset. The data suggests that enforcement, cultural food norms, and economic infrastructure are equally important variables not captured by policy scoring alone.
The takeaway is not that policy is irrelevant — it's that policy alone is insufficient. France's legal framework on food waste is the most comprehensive in the world, yet household behavior, supply chain efficiency, and cultural attitudes toward leftovers contribute factors that laws cannot fully control. A score of 18/18 is a necessary but not sufficient condition for real-world impact.
Australia (score: 7/18, waste: 141 kg/cap) and Canada (score: 15/18, waste: 79 kg/cap) offer an interesting contrast within the higher-income bracket. Canada's stronger score correlates with lower waste here, suggesting policy may matter more at extremes — where either very strong or very weak implementation shapes outcomes — but the middle range is noisy.
Explore these countries on the interactive globe or sort by Policy Score on the data table to investigate the full distribution yourself.