Home » Lebanon Needs to Reduce Household Food Waste

Lebanon Needs to Reduce Household Food Waste Posted on February 6, 12 Did you really think, how much food waste are you accumulating in your household? Millions of tons of food are thrown each year in Lebanon, most of which could have been consumed. About a third of the food produced is used in the manufacture of food, packing and packaging. Nevertheless, it is all lost when it is put away. Food waste is usually the wet and rotten. When mixed with other waste materials that can’t be recycled, it corrupts the gases that contribute to climate change. The environmental advisor Mazen Abboud considered that reducing food waste in household solid waste must be given the importance it deserves due to its direct influence on the decrease of the food bill in a country which exports most of its food. Abboud noted that more than third of food quantities in Lebanon turn into waste and therefore become part of household waste. He called on people not to over-cook non required amounts of food, but to produce sufficient and suitable amounts. He considered that our food habits which fall under the banner of Lebanese hospitality, is not more than waste of imported food generally. “According to that, it can reduce the food bill in Lebanon to more than twenty percent within few years,” he said. He called on the Ministries of Education, Information, Environment, Agriculture and Economy to organize an awareness campaign in this context, “particularly since the European Union has declared the year 2013 as the year of elimination of food waste. The European Parliament approved the program which aims to reduce food waste in household solid waste by fifty percent by the year 2025.” It’s worth mentioning that fruits, vegetables, constitute a high percentage of waste resulting from restaurants, manufacturing industries and retail outlets.