Doha: A ministerial decision has been issued making it mandatory for all entities to sort out their wastes into organic and solid, an official of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has said.
“The sorting out of wastes from source will help us to know the quantity of wastage and track the reason for wasting organic products (food items),” said Director of MME's Food Security Department, Dr. Masoud Jarallah Al Marri.
“This will enable us to know the motive behind wasting foods which is unacceptable behaviour and needs to be changed," he said, while speaking at a recent event organised by the Ministry.
At the same time, he said, the initiative will help recycle the organic wastes into other products like fodders and fertilizers. He said the Ministry has adopted a strategic plan to reduce food waste and surplus agricultural production.
“The production of agricultural commodities by farmers which exceeds consumption is called surplus production. Food waste is food that is not eaten by consumers.”
“The strategic plan has been adopted. Now we are in the stage of preparing conditions. A supreme committee for consultancies will be assigned to make the programmes to reduce food waste and surplus agricultural production,” said Dr. Al Marri. Replying to a question, he said food wastage is related to behaviour of the consumers,stressing the need to educate youngsters about it.
“Under the strategy, subjects related to the issue of reducing food waste will be added in school curricula and awareness campaigns will be launched to develop a food saving culture,” said Dr. Al Marri.
He said the students will be given tutorials about the importance of food in life and how to reduce its wastage, for example by buying only the quantity required. “The programmes will also be implemented in collaboration with restaurants to educate eateries about preparing and serving meals as per the need of the customers,” he said, citing a report about a restaurant out of Qatar which fined a customer for not fully eating the meal he ordered.
According to an earlier report by MME, the national strategy for food security of the country added the issue of food wastage within its programmes and objectives, through the development of a highly efficient supply chain to transport food from ports and warehouses and deliver it to the consumer to reduce food waste, and adopt regulations to enhance healthy competition and food safety.
Projects were launched to enhance treating domestic waste, as licences were issued to two plants to treat organic waste, with the capacity to produce a total of 24,000 tonnes of organic fertilizers.
It is also possible to benefit from food waste in making concentrated feed.
Two projects for the production of concentrated feed were launched. Some food waste can be added to it and mixed for livestock, as well as utilising from some surplus fish for feed composition.
The MME coordinated with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in issuing licences to set up factories to convert some food commodities into other commodities, such as converting low quality tomatoes into sauce.
