Problem Solving for Social Change

Background Note
on
FOOD WASTAGE
MBA 1

Submitted to:
Prof. Sudhir Pandey

Prof. Mudita Vidrohi

From:
Anchal Mehta AU1814047
Ashlesha Joglekar AU1814005
Avinash Daryani AU1814040
Deepesh Sangtani AU1814037
Harsh Mohanani AU1814050
Sanchi Haria AU1814053
CONTENTS

FOOD WASTAGE................................................................................................................................ 3
AN EAGLE EYE VIEW ...................................................................................................................... 3
INDIAN SCENARIO ............................................................................................................................ 4
A DEEP ROOTED PROBLEM........................................................................................................... 5
MEASURES THAT CAN BE TAKEN TO REDUCE THE WASTE: ............................................ 5
REFERENCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS ....................................................................................... 6
FOOD WASTAGE

“You waste life when you waste good food”- Katherine Anne Porter

While a plethora of people slumber without affording the luxury of having meals, on
the other side of the coin, there is a section of society who waste food without entertaining a
single thought about the people who slept hungry.

This is another evidence of proving India- the house of dual standards.

The loss of food and its wastage raises a condition where India’s economic growth
has not been fully rendered into higher food consumption, let alone better diets overall,
suggesting that the poor and hungry may have failed to derive utility much from overall
growth.

AN EAGLE EYE VIEW

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nation surveyed that
every year out of the total production 1/3rd of all the food produced is lost or wasted (which is
around 1.3 billion tons). According to the new survey the amount of food wasted every year
will rise by third by 2030, which will result in to loss of food by 2.1 billion tons. (Food and
Agriculture Organisation, n.d.)

Major fruits, vegetables, plus roots and tubers are wasted in high amount than any other food
items. In Developing countries food waste occurs at early stages of the food value chain. In
develop countries it occurs largely at retail and consumer stage.

The amount food waste category wise:

INDIAN SCENARIO

Food wastage has become a global problem. It is a great

challenge to meet the increasing food needs while reducing the
food wastage as the population is expected to grow exponentially
(1.7 Billion by 2050). About 22% of the population in India falls
under BPL. According to a report by FAO, approximately 190.7
million people in India are malnourished. This represents 14.5%
of Indian population, which makes India, home to largest
malnourished population in the world. In spite of this situation, it
is estimated that India wastes nearly 40% of the food produced
which costs nearly 1 Lakh Crore rupees every year.

Food happens at every level: from

Harvesting transporting processing packaging
consuming.
The major source for wastage of cooked food is at wedding,
parties, restaurants and households.
Also a large portion of food is wasted before it is packaged.
The main reason behind it is due to various loopholes in the
transport and infrastructure in India. (The CSR Journal,
2018)

Nearly 21 million metric tonnes of wheat is wasted

in India.

Hunger Index of India is 100 among 119 countries.

(The CSR Journal, 2018)

(Global Hunger Index, 2018)

A DEEP ROOTED PROBLEM

Weddings, events, restaurants, hotels, temples and houses are a major source for food
wastage. Majority of food in India gets wasted before it is even packed. It is because of the
transportation and infrastructure system in our country.

Our Food system is driven by many economic, cultural and environmental factors and
most of them are unsustainable. Food production in the country is exceeding its
environmental limits or is close to doing so. Land is getting degraded, agriculture, including
fishery is the driver of biodiversity loss and water extracted by irrigation exceeds the
replenishment of the resource.

There are various poor and needy people who still rely on the luck to have proper
meal and the others have excess with them, which gets dumped due to no proper linking or
channel connecting between the two.

Thus, the government and organizations should take the initiative to channelize a link
between the surplus and the deficit and also sort on ways to protect the environment from this
damage.

Measures that can be taken to reduce the waste:

Food waste or food lost is not a problem of one single country or of group of people it is
such a problem that no single entity can solve own its own. But small steps taken at school or
individual level can definitely make a great change in decreasing a food waste problem
because we cannot stop it altogether but can try to reduce it. So possible measures which can
be taken are as follows:

 Spreading awareness of food wastage and its impact on future generation.

 Adoption of good practices to reduce food problem
 One should adopt the practice of shopping smart and realistically
 No over serving of food should be done
 Proper storage of food should be done
 Make use of technology while buying the food
 Understating the dates such as manufacturing and expiry dates
 Learn to preserve
 Donate to food banks or farms
 Volunteering in food rescue organisations
One can take above mention steps to reduce the food waste at the small level.

REFERENCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS

Food and Agriculture Organisation. (n.d.). SAVE FOOD: Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste
Reduction. Retrieved from www.fao.org: http://www.fao.org/save-
food/resources/keyfindings/en/

Global Hunger Index. (2018). 2018 Global Hunger Index Results. Retrieved from
www.globalhungerindex.org: http://www.globalhungerindex.org/results/

The CSR Journal. (2018, February 23). Food Wastage in India. Retrieved from
https://thecsrjournal.in: https://thecsrjournal.in/food-wastage-india/