Did you know that food waste will be the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter if it was a country? So, what is food waste? Basically, any food products that are thrown away rather than being consumed are called food waste. According to Martin et al. (2022), 38,000 tonnes of solid waste produce by Malaysians daily and 17,000 tonnes is food waste in which 4,048 tonnes are estimated avoidable food waste. The sad truth is 10% of the garbage that have been thrown away is actually the food that can still be eaten. Therefore, it is crucial to think of a way on how to solve the issue.

Why reduce food waste?

Due to the volume of food waste produced each year, there is significant problem. Most of the food waste will end up in landfills and will be degraded. Nevertheless, the degradation process will produce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane which contribute to climate change and increase of temperature said Meikeng (2022). In fact, heat can be trapped by the methane within a atmosphere which is twenty-five times more harmful than carbon dioxide. To put simply, the gas emitted is harmful which can affect the environment and contribute to climate change. It is crucial to stop throwing food away and save the Earth.

How can we reduce food waste?

To reduce or stop food waste, changes have to be brought by every person. There are various ways for us to reduce the food waste.

Here are some tips:

• Shop smart. Before shopping, you can check your refrigerator first and list the items that you need to buy to avoid from buying the food that you already have.
• Store food properly. Fruits such apples, bananas and pears release ethylene gas as they ripen. Hence, it is advised to separate those fruits from others to avoid other products nearby from ripen and potentially spoil faster.
• Compost the food. The leftovers of your food can be handled by creating the compost with it which is beneficial way of turning the food waste into energy for plants. 
• Cooking and preparation planning. You can aim to cook and measure the right portions for the number of people you are feeding to avoid from serving too much. 
• ‘First in first out’ concept. Keep and arrange food by using ‘first in first out’ concept where the food items were labelled with the date you keep them. Then, to put the earliest ones in front or top so you can use them first. 

What are benefits of preventing food waste?

There are many benefits you can obtain by reducing the food waste. Firstly, you can save money. When you buy only what you need or only eat what you buy, the throwing away of food can be avoided. Besides that, environmental and climate change footprint will be reduced too. The emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) will be reduced. From activities prior to food entering a landfill which include production, transport, processing and distribution of food, results on more than 85% of GHG emissions from landfilled food waste. Last but not least, food security can be improved by reducing tonnes of food waste every year.

References

Healthline. (2017, November 2017). 20 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/reduce-food-waste#TOC_TITLE_HDR_5
Kosher. (2018, March 26).

Benefits of Reducing Food Loss and Waste.
https://www.klbdkosher.org/news-and-articles/benefits-of-reducing-food-loss-andwaste/

Martin, C., Tan, T., & Ragananthini, V. (2022, August 3). More than 13,000 tonnes of food dumped every month, Dewan Rakyat told. The Star. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/08/03/more-than-13000-tonnes-of-fooddumped-every-month-dewan-rakyat-told

Meikeng, Y. (2022, June 6) M’sians continue to waste food. The Star.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/06/06/msians-continue-to-waste-food

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2022, April 8). Preventing Wasted Food at Home. https://www.epa.gov/recycle/preventing-wasted-food-home