Food wastes and food security: The case of Malaysia

Jereme, et al.

International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences

Int. j. adv. appl. sci.

EISSN: 2313-3724

Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Volume 4, Issue 8 (August 2017), Pages: 6-13

Title: Food wastes and food security: The case of Malaysia

Author(s): Innocent A. Jereme ^1,*, Chamhuri Siwar ¹, Rawshan Ara Begum ², Basri Abdul ³

Affiliation(s):

¹Institute of Environment and Development (LESTARI), National University of Malaysia (UKM), Bangi 43600, Selangor D.E, Malaysia
²Institute for Climate Change, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia Bangi 43600, Selangor D.E, Malaysia
³Faculty of Business and Economics, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor D.E, Malaysia

https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2017.08.002

Full Text - PDF XML

Abstract:

Wasting foods is an affront to those in food insecurity. While thousands of these groups are in dare need of nutritious edible foods, households and restaurants alike are dumping large volumes of edible food wastes into waste bins on daily basis. The objectives of this study are to understand the need to use these large quantities of edible food wastes generated on daily basis by households, restaurants and hotels to reduce food insecurity among the poor households, the homeless and its other social impacts in Malaysia. This is because according to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Malaysia (MHLG), households food wastes volume alone is up to 8,745 tons/per day amounting to 3,192,404 tones/per year. These represent more than 38.32 percent of all total wastes generated: while restaurants generate 941,608 tones/per year, 23.35 percent. However, despite this wastage in Malaysia, previous studies on food security have shown that people in urban low-income households indicated prevalence of overall food insecurity at 65.7% to 66.6% respectively than 58% reported in the rural low-income communities. It is therefore imperative to the channel these foods through the establishment of food banks in some affluent and strategic location in the cities to reduce food insecurity and its environmental and social impacts on the society. Wasting foods have social, environment and economic impacts, and at the same time negates the effort towards sustainable food consumption which has for the last two decades becomes everyday discussions of societies at large.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Food wastes, Food insecurity, Food security, Households, Sustainable food waste management

Article History: Received 2 December 2016, Received in revised form 3 May 2017, Accepted 3 June 2017

Digital Object Identifier:

https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2017.08.002

Citation:

Jereme IA, Siwar C, Begum RA, and Abdul B (2017). Food wastes and food security: The case of Malaysia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 4(8): 6-13

http://www.science-gate.com/IJAAS/V4I8/Jereme.html

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