The picture of food waste and state of security.

Byline: Nazir Ahmed Shaikh

Food wastage is the sum of food waste and food lost.It is an astonishing fact that every year around 36 million tons of food is being wasted in Pakistan. This includes food loss during production, post-harvest handling, agro-processing, distribution and consumption, every year. Due to extreme weather conditions in Pakistan, food loss is expected to be higher than computed by agricultural departments.

Food waste is a very common features at wedding ceremonies. Marriage in Pakistan is an occasion where people spend very extravagantly. Even those hailing from the middle class consider it an opportunity to display their fortunes in the form of bridals dresses, jewelry and lavish dinners. Normally these types of reception dinners take place around midnight. A time when penetratingly starving guest hastily rush towards the food tables, making pyramids of foods in their plates.

They accumulate a heavy quantity of food in their plates in fear that next time they will not get a chance to get more food. Resultantly nearly half of the food in their plates is uneaten and goes to waste. Though most of the people know the importance of food wastage but when it comes to a wedding ceremony, they forget that many people are food-insecure. In this way, leftover food is thrown into the garbage According to recent research, approximately 40 percent of the food prepared for weddings is wasted. Likewise 30 to 40% food is wasted at various hotel banquets. Reportedly, in a major hotel in Islamabad, 870kg of food is wasted each day.

According to an estimate of World Food Program, 43 percent of the Pakistan's population remains food insecure, with 18 percent facing a severe shortage. However, a 2018 national nutrition survey showed that 60 percent of the population still faces food insecurity. This is due primarily to limited economic access by the poorest and most vulnerable to an adequate and diverse diet. The survey also showed that that 15 percent of children under 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, the second highest rate in the region. Close to 44 percent of children in the same age group are underdeveloped, 32 percent are underweight and the majority of children under 2 consume less than half of their daily energy requirements, with low levels of vitamins and minerals.

On Global Hunger Index, Pakistan has been ranked 94, eight spots ahead of archrival India i.e. 102; whereas Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are at 88 and 66, respectively.

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