Need to curb food waste

Today is World Food Day, a day dedicated to tackling global hunger, ensuring food security and providing nutritious diet for all.

The goal of the day is to send a global message that food is a basic and fundamental human right.

There are approximately 805 million people worldwide live with chronic hunger, of which 60 per cent are women. Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition-related causes every day.

All this happens amid billions of tonnes of food going waste globally every day.

Reducing food losses and waste is gathering increasing global concern and action. Governments, research institutions, producers, distributors, retailers and consumers have all different ideas about the problem, solutions and the ability to change.

Like any other country, the Sultanate too acknowledges the need to reduce food losses amid reports that catering companies and hotels alone throw away food worth RO 45 million every year.

According to Oman Food Safety Law, cooked food cannot be kept and served the next day.

The Food Safety Law empowers the Minister of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources to issue necessary regulations to safeguard public health and strengthen consumer safety.

While bemoaning that no charity organisations are coming forward to collect the excess food, a senior manager of a hotel said, “It is pity that tonnes of food is wasted when thousands of people are in need of them.”

According to a recent research report by a scholar at Sultan Qaboos University, an average Omani family wastes about a third of all food prepared within the household.

“A typical Omani family throws away RO 70 worth of leftover food every month,” said Asma al Beloushi, a member of SQU’s Department of Natural Resource Economics, in the report.

While servings averaged 250 gm for children and 600 gm for adults, food waste averaged 143 gm per child and 41 gm per adult.

Wastage at 57 per cent was the highest for children of ages 1-5 years, and lowest at 7 per cent for adults above the age of 40. Children in the age group of 6-18 years wasted 56 per cent of food. The problem of food wastage mounts during Ramadhan, weddings or major celebrations.

However, scholars and social workers opine that educational campaigns can curb the problem to a great extent.

“Awareness and education is the most important solution. This will help change the attitude of people towards food waste reduction,” said Mohamed al Hinai, an educationist.

According to Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations, food loss and food waste refer to the decrease of food in subsequent stages of the food supply chain intended for human consumption.

Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial production down to final household consumption.

The decrease may be accidental or intentional, but ultimately leads to less food available for all. Food that gets spilled or spoilt before it reaches its final product or retail stage is called food loss.

Estimates of global food waste have been as high as 30 or 50 per cent. Although these estimates are based on what has been described as “a weak evidence base” and “inadequate and dated”, evidence shows “there is little doubt that the scale is substantial”.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries generate over 150 million tonnes of municipal waste every year, standing out among the world’s top generators of food waste, according to a new report.

Samuel Kutty