Encourage innovation from the ground up to reduce food wastage

Of the 785,550 tonnes of food waste produced last year in Singapore, only 13 per cent was recycled (“11th Hour app an innovative solution to food wastage”; Nov 11).

Recently, the National Environment Agency (NEA) published an e-book to guide retail establishments towards reducing their food waste.

This is a welcome initiative, as it highlights the issue of food wastage rife in Singaporean society and nudges the relevant stakeholders to tackle the problem.

Other examples of how retailers are solving the problem include the mobile application 11th Hour, which connects retail establishments with consumers for last-minute deals.

Also, The Food Bank Singapore, Food from the Heart and Willing Hearts receive and redistribute donated food.

These ground initiatives are laudable because they redistribute excess food to those who need it more.

However, not many solutions are available to tackle the waste generated by households.

I therefore hope that there can be more ground initiatives to encourage innovative solutions that fight food wastage.

For example, more can be done to avoid having excess food in the first place. A mobile app could be developed to track households’ food purchases and usage so that consumers will not buy more groceries than needed.

The app could be optimised to calculate the amount of groceries needed for a meal or to suggest possible recipes using leftover cooked food and groceries.

The app could also collect information and allow households to compare their consumption with the general trend, or with the recommended level of food consumption based on the Health Promotion Board’s guidelines.

This would allow people to realise when they are over-consuming or not buying enough food.

More can also be done to promote food recycling among households, such as by providing tips on starting a compost bin, worm farm or Bokashi bin in each household, or by having a shared recycling facility for public flats.

Unlike other compost, a Bokashi bin can take more types of food scraps, including raw and cooked meat, dairy and bread, and is suitable for indoor use.

These innovative solutions would reduce food wastage by recycling unwanted food into fertiliser for community gardens.

All in all, I am heartened that Singaporeans have come to realise that food wastage is a pressing issue we must tackle, and that the Government has taken the first steps to initiate discussion on how we can solve it.

But I hope that in future, there can be more innovative ideas from both the Government and from ground initiatives, to eradicate food wastage effectively.