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Editorial

Food waste management

Creating public awareness necessary


Bangladeshpost
Published : 18 Jan 2020 06:38 PM | Updated : 02 Sep 2020 04:52 AM

Worldwide, food waste is one of the prime issues threatening food security and Bangladesh is not an exception. A recent study revealed that the trend of wasting food is increasing in the country and the surplus food that is wasted at wedding programmes in the capital is the highest among total food wastage.  

Food waste refers to food that is good in quality and fit for human consumption but that does not get consumed because it is discarded for many reasons. Even though the world produces enough food to feed twice the world’s present population, the irony is that still there are billions of people who are malnourished.

Food and food waste has been an emerging global problem for the past few years. With accelerated economic growth and increasing production, food waste will be a matter of grave concern also in Bangladesh sooner or later. Bangladesh, being the ninth most populous and twelfth most densely populated country in the world will surely bear consequences of both food scarcity as well as food loss if food wastage problem is not addressed.


With accelerated economic growth and

 increasing production, food waste will be

 a matter of grave concern also in

 Bangladesh sooner or later


Reportedly, people in Bangladesh are wasting about 5.5% of the total procured food. Of the total wastage, 3% is being made during procurement and preparation stage, 1.4% during serving, and another 1.1% from the plates. It is envisaged that because of being one of the most densely and highly populated countries in the world, will surely face food scarcity if the problem of wastage is not addressed

Bangladesh needs to find ways to utilize the surplus food left by ordinary citizens to reduce the food waste stream. Though it is impossible to completely halt the food waste issue yet can be minimized significantly by creating public awareness through launching a sound campaign and the vibrant extension education programs on food waste. Reducing waste demands a change at both the personal attitudes and commercial viewpoints.

Also Bangladesh should launch a national, comprehensive campaign with the goal to save food and use it wisely since a significant proportion of food is imported. In Bangladesh, a campaign needs to be launched to stop the wasting of food, not simply in the family, but in restaurants, hotels, schools, institutions, and universities.