Food Wastage- a ‘stupid’ problem?

The consequences of food wastage are unbelievable, but what if there is an easy way to combat it?

M. Sanjayan, a senior scientist, at Conservation international calls food wastage the world’s dumbest problem- and he’s not wrong. In the US itself 40% of the food that is produced never gets eaten and while that is happening 1 out of 8 Americans don’t have a steady food supply. Why? The answer is simple- inefficiencies between demand and supply in the market. We often end up buying more than we need or the continuous rise in food prices makes it impossible for people to even afford it. What if I told you that can change?

Often we’ve heard about food wastage- on the news, radio, articles which always present it as “emergencies”, yet we look past it. Our privilege does not let us see the indelible damage we are causing to not only our planet but also our people by simple daily activities of wasting food.

You may think that Dubai with its advanced infrastructure and ‘economically developed’ status doesn’t have to face this problem of food wastage because there is always going to be plenty of food for its citizens. After all, why would a developed nation be facing ‘food insecurity’? This mindset of millions of civilians is what will lead to our downfall, because believe it or not food insecurity is one of Dubai’s main concerns. The nature of this problem is much larger than you can imagine. As of 2018, annual food wastage in the UAE is 197 kg per person. If all of Dubai’s 9.9 million inhabitants are taken into consideration, we’re talking 1.9 million tons of food slowly rotting away. The main culprit of this is Dubai’s most booming industry: tourism. “Hospitality and tourism are the biggest sources of food waste (in the region),” said Tara Fischbach, a research assistant at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government. Yes, those lavish hotels and restaurants that tourists flock to every year have exacerbated Dubai’s food insecurity. UAE imports 80–90% of the food it consumes. Combined with the UAE’s limited ability to cultivate crops (arid climate and lack of fertile soil) and increased amounts of imports, food prices are rising and making basic food options unaffordable for its citizens.

Now you may ask but how does this affect me? Why is this really worth solving? The economy of the UAE, and particularly the emirate of Dubai, relies heavily on the tourism industry. Many hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets feel pressured to produce vast amounts of food for incoming tourists that often do not get eaten. Because of this, food waste is a problem in the UAE, to the extent that more than $3.54 billion worth of food is wasted in the country every year. $3.54 billion worth of food, if saved, could’ve been used for the welfare of the country. As result, About 17 percent of children under the age of 5 in the UAE are malnourished, often resulting in stunted growth. “This figure, if compared to the Western countries, is quite high and is also significant compared to other countries in the world,” said Dr. Mohammed Miqdady, Senior Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterology at Shaikh Khalifa Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi.

Amal Al Ahmadi, senior analyst in the agriculture development and health sector at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment said, “Retail outlets, such as groceries and supermarkets, also generate food waste, and could donate food that is about to expire,” she said. Now, this is what sparked an interest. Donate. It has been advertised all over UAE- to donate what you don’t need to ones in an unfortunate situation. But how? Foodbanks are present in the UAE, however, how can preventing food wastage and implementing affordable prices be done efficiently?

This is where Foodversity comes in. We understand that hunger is universal. It affects the poor as much as the wealthy. We know from a business point of view, retailers want to make a profit as well. We aim to combine these ideas. Often when we think of solving a global issue or making a “change”, we imagine it to be something drastic- but it doesn’t have to be. With Foodversity we directly connect retailers and consumers, providing 100% customer transparency as well as providing them with a choice. Our main goal is to illustrate that simple changes as to where you get your groceries from and how you do it can make a huge impact on your surroundings. Just consciously being aware of your actions and their impacts itself is a step towards preventing food wastage. We believe that small actions have big changes. Now, you may ask how does this work?

First, Foodversity allows the user to input their food requirements and dietary preferences and from there, the algorithm filters the output. The app now customizes the results according to the users’ preferences and produces the user with names of the supplier chain and what food is available. They can then select what items suit their needs best and can then proceed to check out. The items will have their before and after prices displayed which would entice the customer into buying the products. Foodversity dematerializes, digitizes, and disrupts conventional business models by using 21st-century technology that is available to us as a vehicle to drive us to achieve our ultimate goal.

With Foodversity consumers aren’t the only ones that benefit. Retailers in Dubai have to pay a monthly fee to the government when disposing of their surplus, however, what if they don’t have that surplus? Imagine, if their surplus is consumed by customers and they can gain profit off it- isn’t that the ideal scenario. Foodversity gives them the chance to efficiently get rid of their surplus and conserve their profits.

A global issue such as food wastage can be prevented just by a little support from you and me. Surveys held by carrefour suggest that the most common ways of tackling food wastage are donating to food banks or extending use-by dates however one that is not given the most importance to is redistributing surplus, and with Foodversity we want to shed light on this idea. Drastic measures such as opening a food bank are not required; simple actions go a long way. Let’s do what a community is supposed to do and solve this issue once and for all.

To test how willing consumers will be to try our app, Foodversity conducted a survey. 91.30% of people agreed to use our app and 95.65% favored the idea of recycling surplus as an efficient way to tackle food wastage. This helps support the idea that even the general public believes that their small actions can go a long way. These simple changes can ensure that families don’t go to sleep on an empty stomach; it ensures the conservation of several tones of food and saves retailers from losing thousands of dollars. At Foodversity we aim for our future to look like this, do you?

Foodversity is still in the process of being developed, so far we’ve only come up with an MVP, however for more details and questions feel free to contact me at alefiya.asghar@gmail.com