The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for global awareness in cutting food waste, particularly in developing countries, as it poses severe environmental and social threats. The FAO spoke at the seminar ‘Save Food for a Better World’ last week, adding that a quarter of wasted food globally could feed 870 million hungry people.
Rosa S Rolle, the FAO’s senior agro-industries and post-harvest officer, said waste is increasing in developing countries even though the highest amount of leftover food is in developed countries. She said food is wasted at each part of the supply chain, including planting, harvesting, transportation and at consumers tables.
The FAO also said about 1.3 billion tonnes of global food is wasted every year.
Pre and post-harvest losses account for most loss in developing countries, FAO data shows. About 15-50% of the fresh produce grown across the Asia-Pacific region is lost because of supply chain problems, especially from farms to markets.
“Leftover food is a source of greenhouse gas emissions and it could also help millions of people escape hunger,” she said.
Ms Rolle added that the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the FAO in September agreed in principle to form the “National Save Food Network” to raise awareness on how to reduce food waste.
Charkrit Direkwattanachai, head of public affairs for Tesco Lotus, said the firm has emphasised food waste reduction by raising awareness and enforcing stricter management at harvest sources which can reduce unwanted products from 2.15% to 0.13%.
“We tell the farmers what they should plant and how much we need. It is a way of limiting the amount of wasted products at the sources,” Mr Charkrit said.
Sakol Thinakul, deputy chief of the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, said the department has been trying to cut food waste nationwide as it accounted for 64% of waste this year.