South Africa’s Effort to Reduce Food Waste.
South Africa has committed itself to reduce food waste over the years. It is alarming that 45% of the food supply in South Africa goes to waste, which means that an estimated 10.3 million tonnes of edible food do not reach its intended consumption. This also has implications for our environmental, economic and climate change implications. Most importantly, food waste develops methane gas when food spoils, resources such as water, labour and energy are wasted, and biodiversity is impacted.
South Africa intends to respond to the challenges through our food voluntary agreement, which would address this challenge through a joint declaration to reduce food waste or enable markets for nutritious surplus food. The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) and the national Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) implemented the agreement together with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has been working with South Africas food supply chain to develop a food loss and waste agreement.
The South African Food Loss and Waste Agreement was implemented on 29th September 2020. Which highlighted the agreement’s vision:
Adopt the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.
Adopt the food utilisation hierarchy, prioritising preventing and reducing food loss and waste.
Lastly, adopt waste management solutions that contribute to the circular economy and improve sustainable food systems
It is not solely the priority of South Africa government to come up with solutions to alleviate food waste. Still, as the citizens of this country, we should do our utmost best to assist the government and implement our personal goals to reduce food waste in our communities and households.
Food waste is one of the world’s biggest problems, not just South Africa. It is famously said that if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse-emitting country in the world. This needs to be changed urgently and is unsustainable.
