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Posted by: Mazur Rodica

News / Social

26 Jan. 2020 / 18:00

Food waste, in the attention of specialists

One third of the world's food is lost or wasted. Statistics show that over 1,300 billion tons of food produced and intended for consumption worldwide is discarded, although it might be good for consumption. That amount could feed three billion people a year. In Moldova, the figures are not encouraging either. And even if the representatives of the chains of shops and restaurants would prefer to donate the products ready to expire to social canteens or centers destined to the needy, they are hindered by the legislative barrier, reports Moldova 1.

Internationally, almost 120 million people face poverty. At the same time, around 80 million tons of food are wasted. As for our country, there is no statistics yet on how much food waste reaches the dump. However, there is a high share of food waste in the agricultural field, say the specialists.

"Food waste is a global problem affecting our country too. A greater share is notified to the losses of farmers related to food waste, than to food waste, considering that the agricultural sector is not sufficiently developed to be able to take into account the number and value of the necessary investments,” said Tudor Robu, deputy representative FAO in Moldova.

"The part of food waste is not yet evaluated as real statistics, because no conditions are created for the separation of these types of waste, they go mixed with the sortable waste. We are also trying to take the first steps, at the present stage we are focusing more on waste that can be recovered under other aspects, returned to the economic circuit,” said Svetlana Bolocan, Head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment.

According to the Environmental Strategy 2023, in the Republic of Moldova, the quality of the soils loses its former value, due to the diminishing contribution of organic substances and fertilizers. A soil improvement solution would be compost. This would help grow the plants and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers. The waste can be recovered for processing into other by-products for the livestock sector or transformed into fertilizer. This is the case of Marius Balan, who decided to compost food waste. Thus, he puts all organic waste in an airtight boiler and treats them with bran.

At the industrial level, the amount of food waste is even higher. Only in 2019, following the official controls, over four tons of products were withdrawn from the food circuit. In this regard, the business environment has come up with a legislative initiative to reduce the possibility of the emergence of waste from unrealized foods in commercial networks.

Thus, following the collaboration between the business environment and authorities, a draft law on food waste was created aiming to allow the economic agents to donate the surplus food to the public associations or to direct it to the production of animal feed. However, it is not known yet when the initiative will arrive in Parliament.

Food waste also causes a number of ecological problems. Reaching the trash pit, they accelerate climate change as they release methane gas. The countries with the largest food waste include the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, but also the neighboring Romania.

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