A third of Ramadan food is wasted

RIYADH: A recent study showed that approximately 30 percent of 4 million dishes prepared daily in Ramadan is wasted.

Translated into money, it amounts to SR1.2 million every day, according to the College of Food and Agricultural Sciences at King Saud University.
This enormous amount of food could feed hungry people in different parts of the world.
The same study showed that an estimated 4,500 tons of food is wasted every day in Saudi Arabia. Large banquets and daily buffets are the prime reasons for such waste.
According to Professor Khodran H. Al-Zahrani of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Sociology at CFAS at KSU, about 1.3 billion tons of edible food is wasted. More than 40 percent occurs at the retail and consumer levels and this is happening when more than 1 billion people in the world go to bed hungry.
He said the food was wasted all along the food chain — by farmers, food industries, retailers, caterers and consumers. The waste is due to a lack of awareness, lack of planning on the part of shoppers. He said wastefulness has reached new levels and that food is the No. 1 ingredient in waste in landfills.
Al-Zahrani said that there was an urgent need to reduce the food waste in Saudi Arabia. One of them would be to increase public awareness of the food and water situation in the Kingdom through a comprehensive national campaign.
“The other possible reason Saudis waste food is that it is so abundant in this country. Fresh food is considered hygienic and standardized. People prefer to throw away leftover food as many think it’s unhealthy to eat or they don’t like it,” said Mirza Baig, an expert.
He said supermarkets, restaurants and cafes make the situation worse due to excessive waste. Setting up lavish food tables during Eid festivals, weddings, parties or informal get-togethers has become normal in Saudi society. Unsold food items are also dumped, along with the damaged goods instead of disposing them of appropriately.