Food waste in Malaysia

Sunday Spotlight: What a waste!
New Straits Times 30 May 10;

A nation that generates more than a kilogramme of waste per person a day is considered developed. But when food increasingly becomes part of the landfill, it is a sign of societal regression, writes CHAI MEI LING

MENTION food wastage and images of leftovers from overladen plates and all-you-can-eat buffet lines spring to mind.

But a recently concluded survey revealed that urban households are an even bigger culprit when it comes to wasting food.

Urban Malaysians throw away close to one million kilogrammes of food from their kitchen every day -- 40 per cent more than what businesses and industries discard.

Bread and fruits are among the most common edibles to end up in garbage bins.

The study by Universiti Malaya, which took eight years to complete, detailed the composition of landfills in Selangor, divided into 24 categories. They included unconsumed food, kitchen waste, rubber, textile, wood and garden waste.


Researchers rummaged through the trash in landfills to analyse what households, businesses and industries threw out.

Unconsumed food comprised four per cent of the composition of an urban landfill in Kundang, Rawang.

"Four per cent seems like a small figure, but volume-wise, that translates to more than 1,000 tonnes of food tossed out a day.


"Multiply that by 365 days, put a monetary value to it, and you'll see how many millions of ringgit we're throwing away year after year," said solid and hazardous waste management expert Prof Dr P. Agamuthu.

This worrying trend, up from about two per cent five years ago, shows no signs of slowing down, said Agamuthu, who headed the study.

"As people become more affluent, they can afford to buy more. But with both the husband and wife working in most households, they become so busy that food bought isn't consumed on time."

Rural landfills however, were found to contain less food items. The Panchang Bedena landfill in Hulu Selangor, for example, had 0.5 per cent of unconsumed food.

Rural households also throw away much less food compared with businesses and institutions.

However, the study showed that the higher the income of the people, the more food they throw away, whether in urban or rural areas.

Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohamed Idris said Malaysians "do not feel guilty about wasting food" as they did not have to worry about food shortages or going hungry,

"Look at the amount of uneaten food left on the tables of restaurants, fast food chains and hawker centres. Parents are telling the kids that it's all right not to finish the food, instead of telling them not to waste. Children feel it's acceptable to leave food uneaten."

This vicious cycle bears bad news for both the nation's economy and environment.

Buying food that is not consumed gives rise to a false demand for the item, which unnecessarily hikes up prices. This puts a burden on the lower-income group which spends a far higher proportion of their earnings on food, said Idris.

Sunday Spotlight: To Throw or not to throw
New Straits Times 30 May 10;

WE'VE all done it at some point -- throw away good food that we think is no longer fit for consumption.

But we've also tucked into stale fare we assumed was fresh, upsetting our stomachs in the process.

The line between food safety and wastage isn't always clear-cut. Throw and you're wasteful, keep and you run the risk of jeopardising your health.

So how do we tell what's to be kept and what's not?

It's subjective, because different food has different ways of deteriorating, and the tolerance level of people is not the same, said food safety expert Professor Dr Son Radu.

"The rule of thumb is to base it on experience. Observe the changes in the texture, shape and colour, and take those as indications.

"For example, fruits and vegetables continue to undergo enzymatic reaction after being harvested, so they continue to deteriorate until they become spoiled. From your personal experience, you would roughly know what you can stomach."

But the signs are not always there, warned Universiti Putra Malaysia's Dr Chai Lay Ching.

"Microorganisms grow in food and cause changes in taste, smell or texture, so it's fairly easy to spot these signs.

"However, foodborne pathogens, like salmonella, do not physically change food in any way but they cause disease."

To be safe and prudent, it's advisable to cook only what's needed because food is best consumed as soon as possible after cooking, said Son, an expert consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

"Eating food within two hours of cooking is considered safe. After that, there's no guarantee because there are many ways microbes can get in."

The biggest culprit is cross contamination, he added. Microbes can be transferred from dirty hands to plates, or make their way into cooked meat through a tainted container.

When excess food is kept warm and not hot, as what some eateries do, there is a risk of food contamination because warm temperatures provide "a perfect condition for pathogens to grow", said Chai.

E. coli, for example, needs only six hours to grow to a very high level that's detrimental to health, she added.

The researcher, who specialises in microbiological risk analysis, also discourages people from taking leftovers.

Reheating food kills most microorganisms, but some produce toxins that can't be eliminated.

"That's why it's best to cook what you need at the time you need it."