Amount of food waste in Singapore hits record high [News]
July 2, 2013 by Save Food Cut Waste
Filed under Blog
By Walter Sim, The Straits Times, 1 Jul 2013.
From the factory right down to the dining table, more food is being dumped in Singapore.
A new record was set for food wastage last year as 703,200 tonnes were generated – a 26 per cent spike from the 558,900 tonnes produced in 2007.
This far outpaced the 15.8 per cent growth in the local population over the same period.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) said that besides population growth, a rise in tourist arrivals and increasing affluence had contributed to the problem.
Mr Jose Raymond, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, said the “ease of accessibility to food and increased food variety” could also have worsened the wastage.
The problem has permeated every link of the supply chain. In a statement to The Straits Times, the NEA noted that food wastage “is being produced in homes, as well as food manufacturing and catering industries, foodcourts, restaurants, supermarkets and hawker centres”.
But the amount of food being recycled each year remains low.
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Source: The Straits Times
Why waste so much if we love food? [News]
July 1, 2013 by Save Food Cut Waste
Filed under Blog
By Tom Benner, The Straits Times, 24 Mar 2013.
Singaporeans tossed out some 675 million kilos of food in 2011, according to the National Environment Agency, a vast amount that exposes the casual attitudes and habits of living in a food paradise and land of plenty.
This may seem surprising for Singapore, a small island that imports most of what is consumed. Singaporeans are second to none in their love of food, yet one routinely sees unfinished plates getting scraped into rubbish bins, from hawker centres to high-end restaurants and catered affairs.
It is not just a Singapore problem; it is a part of a global problem of growing proportions.
Food loss and food waste occur at alarming rates – about one-third of all the food produced for human consumption, some 1.3 billion tonnes of food worth around US$1 trillion (S$1.25 trillion) – is lost or wasted each year. At the same time, world food demand grows; about one billion people are undernourished globally.
Food loss typically happens in the way food is harvested, transported, processed and stored. One example: Staggering amounts of rice are lost to substandard farm storage facilities vulnerable to pest infestation and moisture.
Click here to read the full article.
Source: The Straits Times
