This book contributes to definitional, institutional and analytic understanding of one of society's great challenges and places this challenge firmly within the reach of policy instruments both conventional and novel. Its survey of a large body of literature, and the diverse stakeholder landscape, on food loss and waste (FLW) is enlightening. It provides a good entry point for the lay reader to several vexed issues (such as definition and past attempts at measurement) while providing good summaries for the guidance of researchers and policymakers (such as regulatory approaches taken and mapping of problems to policy frameworks). An agreeable style offers short paragraphs of short sentences, with points well made. The travel-friendly small volume does however occasion a crowded page. Tables are used well, but the labelling of columns can be confusing. The chapters are of varying length, but all writing is succinct and clear. The large volume of literature available on disparate aspects of FLW, all of which claim to focus on global challenges associated with rising population and living standards, compels a summary volume such as this to select and implement a structure and sequence in presentation. This aspect of the book will disappoint some readers: the introduction examines the nature and extent of the problem before offering definitions and metrics in the next chapter; regulatory options and strategic approaches are discussed before the discussion of policy formulation around established concepts; and the very well-constructed and explained list of drivers of FLW is not formally aligned with the chapters that describe action. For these reasons, the book is a reference work rather than a compelling story advocating change. For that role it is well supported by an excellent and extensive index of topics, but in contrast the table of contents is laconic and does not cater well for the author's frequent return to topics for reiteration and application. Definitions and metrics are vexed topics that the book progresses through gradually and informatively by addressing first the fundamental questions like ‘what is food?’ The reasoning and discussion is clear and well presented, although might have been improved by a graphic providing a typology or taxonomy. Elements of definition related to the food supply chain are well discussed, but two key empirical considerations receive insufficient attention: double counting within the supply chain (see Bellemare et al. 2017); and the inherent endogeneity of food quantities supplied and demanded. For the latter, a bullet point in the book acknowledges the problem but does not guide empirical approaches. These two absences weaken the case for application of concepts of value, which enable the business case analysis of food waste opportunities, such as seen in the Circular Economy (Unger and Razza 2018). This minimises the book's recognition of the centrality of economic metrics in policy and development. The book acknowledges in concluding comments in the chapter on environmental impacts that personal financial incentives may outweigh the environmental considerations of households, but incentives and behaviour are insufficiently used in the remainder of the book, which is one reason why its conclusions are less strong in advocacy than its title proposes. The book performs very well in presenting and rationalising the existing literature's somewhat dogmatic approach which divides drivers between those observed in the rich and the poor worlds. The book does well in utilising context, culture and the foundations of competitive forces in the discussion, which complements the tables providing a long list with many examples and citations. Again, guidance from column headings would have been a useful addition to these tables. An overlooked element of FLW's context that is uniquely well covered by this book is the global institutional progression of the response to the problem. This showcases leadership by FAO, through various initiatives both directly and indirectly linked to FLW, while also highlighting the contributions made in individual countries. The excellent presentation of national and international programs and policy initiatives launched is not available elsewhere in succinct form. Some readers may seek more on the linkages between these FLW efforts and the broader aspects of waste management, but the book has chosen its ground well and delivered a strong and specialised approach that extends very well to water resource management, biodiversity and GHG emissions. These are brought together a little awkwardly with the traditional food waste pyramid, prompted by treatment of landfill disposal as an environmental decision rather than a pragmatic amalgam of various imperatives familiar to local governments. The implications of the modern communications-based economy for FLW solutions are also somewhat lacking in the book: app-based approaches to the sharing economy are referred to as ‘sub-cultures’, which in some readers’ view would trivialise this powerful enabler of change. Two short chapters on ethical issues and regulatory options offer somewhat general material that overlaps to some degree with other chapters. The regulatory options are not well tied to the drivers introduced elsewhere. Most ethical issues raised are also probably best addressed in terms of drivers of food waste, but this link is not strongly made. The phase-by-phase discussion of policy formulation is somewhat agnostic to FLW and might have been relegated to a table with some practical guidance offered on each phase. The establishment of consultation processes amongst the far-flung constituency of stakeholders that the book identifies so well is one example, and the employment of the book's large battery of reviewed metrics in measurement of impact is another. To some extent, these tasks are carried out in the chapter which assesses strategic approaches. Despite brevity both in syntax and overall length, the reader finishes the book somewhat breathless due to the bulk of material concentrated in its pages. The contribution of this book lies not in its conclusions, but in synthesis of the context of the problem of FLW and of the potential solutions. This places it usefully between works on FLW's technical aspects and those emphasising advanced economic analysis. This is a welcome addition to the literature on FLW.