Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Nogeh Gumbek said the increasing food wastage, especially during festive seasons, should not be made a habit and should be curbed.

“Research conducted by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) shows that 28.4 per cent of the padi produced is wasted. As for fruits and vegetables, 20 to 50 per cent is thrown away,” he said after opening the ‘MySaveFood’ forum here today.

Nogeh said the government, through Mardi, was conducting several programmes nationwide to educate the public on the consequence of food wastage.

Meanwhile, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Senior Enterprise Development Officer Dr Rosa Rolle said the Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Standard will be launched next month in a bid to address the challenges of quantifying food loss and waste.

“The FLW Standard will enable a wide range of entities, countries and other regions to account for and report in a credible, practical and internationally consistent manner, how much food loss and waste is created and identify where it occurs, thus enabling the targeting of efforts to reduce it.”

Rolle said the development of the standard is being coordinated by the World Resources Institute together with the Consumer Goods Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

“Globally, about 1.3 billion tonnes of food valued at RM4.4 trillion is lost or wasted yearly,” she added.

The “MySaveFood” forum was attended by 100 participants from government agencies and the private sector aimed at creating awareness about the food life cycle and to reduce food waste. It is jointly organised by FAO and Mardi.

– BERNAMA