Malaysians waste 15,000 tonnes of food daily

The Star 25 May 16;

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians waste 15,000 tonnes of food daily, including 3,000 tonnes still fit for consumption. Fifteen thousand tonnes is equivalent to 1.5 million bags of 10kg rice.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Nogeh Gumbek said the increasing food wastage, especially during festive seasons, should be curbed.

“Research conducted by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) shows that 28.4% of the padi produced is wasted.

“As for fruits and vegetables, 20%-50% is thrown away,” he said after opening the “MySaveFood” forum here yesterday.

Nogeh said the Government through Mardi was conducting several programmes nationwide to educate the public on the consequences of food wastage.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) senior enterprise development officer Dr Rosa Rolle said the Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Standard would be launched next month in a bid to address the challenges of quantifying food loss and waste.

“The FLW Standard will enable a wide range of entities, countries and other regions to account for and report in a credible, practical and internationally consistent manner, how much food loss and waste is created and identify where it occurs, thus enabling the targeting of efforts to reduce it,” she said.

Rolle said the development of the standard was being coordinated by the World Resources Institute together with the Consumer Goods Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

“Globally, about 1.3 billion tonnes of food valued at RM4.4 trillion is lost or wasted yearly,” she added.

The “MySaveFood” forum attended by 100 participants from government agencies and the private sector aimed to create awareness about the food life cycle and to reduce food waste.

It was jointly organised by FAO and Mardi. — Bernama