Food waste: Are we biting off more than we can chew?

From a young age, we are taught about the importance of food and how central it is to our survival. We learn that our taste buds develop as we grow and that at every stage of life, we can discover a new appreciation for food and the varied and complex layers of pleasure it brings us. We are also taught the etiquette of eating, the correct use of utensils, and to give thanks before and after each meal; taught to respect food and appreciate the effort put in to getting it from the farm to our table. We are also taught to think of the poor and the underprivileged, and how many people around the world are struggling to put food on their table — one of our most essential needs, second only to air and water

We even have special occasions each year to reflect on our blessings in having access to food — the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims (We say Bismillah and Alhamdullilah before and after each meal). Christians have Lent and say ‘Grace’ before eating. November each year sees Americans and others around the world celebrating Thanksgiving. On all these occasions and many others, food is celebrated, so the question now is why have I, and millions of others, forgotten all these precious lessons? Why is it that with so much respect and attachment for sustenance ingrained in us from an early age, do humans so carelessly waste tonnes of food on a daily basis?

We in the UAE waste an awful lot of food

An article in Khaleej Times during the last Ramadan made the worrying point that in the UAE, on average, each person wastes 224kg of food each year, which is more than double the figure for Europe and the US, according to the Food Sustainability Index 2020. During Ramadan, food wastage rises by up to 25 per cent.

Around 225kg! To put that into perspective, it’s equivalent to the weight of an upright piano. And during Ramadan, this rises to 280kg, which is equivalent to 280-litre bottles of milk. Imagine pouring that down the kitchen sink.

In the UAE, the economic cost of food waste is counted in billions of dirhams every year, and according to industry estimates, it could be as high as Dh12-13 billion annually, which breaks down to over Dh1 billion a month, or Dh250,000,000 a week or Dh35 million every single day. We need to start putting our food where our mouth is and take a lot more responsibility, teach our children and set an example.

Many countries have started to take a series of measures to control food waste and some perhaps can be learned from. There are shops and food banks in Europe where people can donate their ‘near expired’ canned goods for others to buy at a fraction of the price, like Wefood in Denmark. In 2016, France adopted a law on fighting food waste, banning supermarkets from destroying unsold food products at the end of each day and forcing them to donate to food banks and charities.

In the UK, the high street store Iceland is giving away food on its last day of shelf life to online shoppers in a new bid to tackle food waste. Under the initiative, if a fresher product of a customer’s choice is not available, Iceland staff may add one on its final shelf-life day to the order instead and the shopper will not be charged for the product. All chilled and fresh products, along with cakes and bread, are included in the scheme.

While Australia, Norway, Italy, Denmark and South Korea already have waste reduction plans, here in the UAE, we are beginning to embrace innovative approaches to the challenges of sustainable food production and the management of food waste. Concerns have taken on a renewed urgency in the recent past because of the Covid-19 pandemic which disrupted global food-supply chains and destroyed crop yields, Lord Udny-Lister, co-chairman of the UAE-UK Business Council, told a recent webinar.