Businesses, households urged to curb food waste
Annually an estimated 10.3 million tonnes of edible food in South Africa does not reach the human stomach.
BUSINESSES and households are urged to reduce food losses and waste, since annually an estimated 10.3 million tonnes of edible food in South Africa does not reach the human stomach.
According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) latest study, this is equivalent to 34% of local food production and 45% of available food supply in the country.
ALSO READ: Arts MEC warns about fraudsters exploiting department programme
The majority of South Africa’s food losses and waste (68%) are said to occur in the early stages of production, with 19% occurring during post-harvest handling and storage, and 49% during processing and packaging.
‘Food waste at the consumption stage is 18%, more than three times higher than previous estimates,’ said Prof Suzan Oelofse, principal researcher at the CSIR.
‘In terms of commodity groups, cereals contribute 50% of the overall losses and waste, followed by fruit and vegetables (19%), milk (14%) and meat (9%).
‘The updated figures are in the same order of magnitude as the previous estimates in 2013, but the distribution of the losses and waste across the value chain has changed.’
The study, funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) under the Waste Research, Development and Innovation Roadmap, is aimed at increasing reliable scientific data and information on food losses and waste in South Africa.
‘If South Africa is to achieve the target of halving per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030, we need to inform action through robust scientific evidence,’ said Dr Henry Roman, Director Environmental Services and Technologies at the DSI.
