Malaysians waste 15,000 tonnes of food daily

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians waste 15,000 tonnes of food daily including 3,000 tonnes that is still fit for consumption and should not be discarded.  

Deputy Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Nogeh Gumbek said the increasing food wastage especially during festive seasons should not be made a habit and should be curbed.  

"Research conducted by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) shows that 28.4% of the paddi produced is wasted. As for fruits and vegetables, 20 to 50% is thrown away," he said after opening the “MySaveFood” forum here Tuesday.  

Nogeh said the government through Mardi is conducting several programmes nationwide to educate the public on the impact of food wastage to the people and the country.  

Meanwhile, 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.  

Dr Rolle said the development of the standard is being coordinated by the World Resources Institute (WRI) together with the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).  

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

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

It is jointly organised by FAO and Mardi. - Bernama