Saturday, Jul 12, 2014
Ramadan is a time where food is in abundance in the UAE. Iftar buffets in every restaurant in the UAE are made up of staggering amounts of dishes — much of which it makes it to the plate but not to the palate. The unused food is dumped — to be thrown into landfills later.
In Dubai alone, Dubai Municipality’s waste management department estimates that in non-Ramadan days, food waste is nearly 38 per cent daily and during Ramadan the number climbs to 55 per cent. This means that more than half of what is cooked is thrown away. In a month which denotes moderation and self-introspection, we are actually more greedy and wasteful. Is it ethical or even viable for anyone to waste so much food at a time when according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), more than 870 million people go without food each day?
In numbers
Globally, numbers relating to food waste are not very comforting either. The FAO points to a global wastage of nearly 1.3 billion tonnes of food every year. The social, environmental and economic cost of unused food, which uses up land, water and manpower resources is monumental.
According to annual statistics provided by the FAO, the carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases. The blue water footprint (consumption of surface and groundwater resources) of food waste is about 250 cubic kilometres, which equals to a few times the volume of some big lakes. Produced but uneaten food occupies close to 1.4 billion hectares of land, representing 30 per cent of the world’s agricultural land area. 54 per cent of food waste occurs during production, post-harvest handling and storage, and 46 per cent of it happens after the processing, distribution and consumption stages. The direct economic impact runs to about $750 billion (Dh2,754 billion) annually.
For the UAE, this wastage has a far greater meaning as the food import bill is high. Denisa Fainis, a UAE resident who is working on her own project to supply unused food from restaurants to workers’ accommodation says: “Dubai is one of the largest and most important centres of global trade, food imports make up to close to 90 per cent of what we eat, but that number varies every year. The UAE depends on importers, especially since the population is increasing and tourism will be doubled by 2020. Local production and imports is not coping with the population growth. Imports are going to increase. GCC food imports are estimated to reach $53 billion by 2020, with only one per cent of the GCC land arable. With these numbers in mind, we cannot afford to waste any food.”
Taking individual responsibility
Every year, environment and sustainability groups initiate awareness campaigns during Ramadan to educate people, families and restaurant owners to think twice before throwing food away. Says Fainis: “Every individual needs to take ownership and remember that food waste begins at home. Grocery shopping is hectic during Ramadan. Local residents are accustomed to cooking and sending food to their family members and friends with no actual time to redistribute it or eat it all. The same goes for the hospitality sector and restaurants, who would rather have more food cooked just to make sure there’s enough. There’s a moral responsibility to plan better and have a system that control the leftovers. Have the proper protocols, and standards in place, to utilise all of the raw food before it goes bad and have the right monitoring tools and equipment to store both raw food and cooked food before and during serving. Make sure staff are supervised and take accountability and ownership of their job and serve food on time.”
By Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
