Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law

University, Lucknow
ACADEMIC SESSION:
2019-2020

Sociology
“Don’t waste food”
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
Prof. Dr. Sanjay Singh Sadhna Diwakar
Professor Sociology BA-LLB (1st Semester)
st

RMLNLU 190101121

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 Acknowledgment
I would like to convey my gratefulness to a lot many people who have helped and
support in making this project.
I would like to thanks my family and friends who have always been supporting of
endeavors
Words are inadequate in offering a deep sense of gratitude to my professor Dr.
Sanjay Singh, for her precious guidance. From assigning me this topic to instruct
me on how I should move forward with my work, her enthusiasm and knowledge
has always been of upmost Importance.
I would also like to thank the librarians of Dr. Madhu Limaye Library who
extended their assistance to me by helping me out consult the relevant books,
and the best speed internet of University that help me to look out for the concern
material i.e. secondary data very easily and smoothly.
I know that despite my efforts some discrepancies might have crept in which I
believe my humble Professor would forgive.
Thanking you all…
Sadhna diwakar

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Table of content
1. Introduction

2. Why is food wastage a problem?

3. What are the causes of food wastage?
4. Here’s what one can do on a more personal level to contain the food wastage
5. Analysing Food Wastage in India

6. Government Initiatives

7. Follow these tips to help you reduce food waste, save money and protect the
environment:

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 INTRODUCTION

● INDIANS waste as much food as the whole of United Kingdom consumes – a statistic
that may not so much indicative of our love of surfeit, as it is of our population.
Still, food wastage is an alarming issue in India. Our street and garbage bins, landfills
have sufficient proof to prove it.
● Weddings, canteens, hotels, social and family functions, households spew out so much
food. According to the United Nations Development Programme, up to 40% of the food
produced in India is wasted. About 21 million tonnes of wheat are wasted in India and
50% of all food across the world meets the same fate and never reaches the needy. In
fact, according to the agriculture ministry, INR 50,000 crores worth of food produced is
wasted every year in the country.
● In India, the bigger the wedding, the larger the party and the more colossal the waste. No
doubt weddings and banquets are a huge source of food wastage, but restaurants and
hotels also contribute to food wastage, though the awareness around this has grown in the
last five years. While some restaurants in India employ food controllers to check food
spoilage, others donate it to.

Why is food wastage a problem?

● Even though the world produces enough food to feed twice the world’s present
population, food wastage is ironically behind the billions of people who are
malnourished. The number of hungry people in India has increased by 65 million more
than the population of France. According to a survey by Bhook (an organization working
towards reducing hunger) in 2013, 20 crore Indians sleep hungry on any given night.
About 7 million children died in 2012 because of hunger/malnutrition.\

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 What are the causes of food wastage?
Causes

● Poor farmers harvest crops too early in response to a lack of food and money. ...
● Minimal farming technology such as plows, tractors, and pesticides.
● Inadequate market systems. ...
● Fresh produce, meat, and fish spoil in hot climates due to the lack of proper transportation.

Here’s what one can do on a more personal level to contain the food wastage:

● Plan out your meal and make your shopping list to determine what you actually need for the
week. About 20% of what we buy in urban India ends up being thrown away. You could in
the week after cut down on the surplus and soon in two or three weeks you will have a
precise list of your family’s weekly consumption. You have no idea how amazed you will be
at how much you buy and what you actually consume. Needless to say that the difference is
but naturally wasted.
● Buy in quantities you can realistically use. Avoid impulse buys. It will more or less find the
bin.
● If you cook at home, make sure you cook keeping in mind there is no excess. You can always
complete your meals with a few fruits rather than keep some extra food in the refrigerator.
It’s a lot better and a healthier practice too.
● Select according to their shelf life. Use the green vegetables first. Don’t throw out fruits and
veggies with ‘aesthetic only’ blemishes. Use canned and bottled food before expiry dates.

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● Reuse the refrigerated left-overs (if any) for the very next meal.
● Even if food gets spoilt then compost it.
● If you work in an office that has a canteen, check with them on how they manage excess
food. Cooked food, especially since it has a low shelf life needs to be managed better and
faster. Check with NGOs who offer to transport excess food to the needy.
● If you host a family get together either at home, a marriage hall or throw a party at a hotel,
make sure you plan for the food to be transported to a place like an orphanage or an old age
shelter.
● Make finishing your plate a habit. Try to inculcate it further to as many possible.

Analysing Food Wastage in India

● Food wastage is fast assuming serious dimensions. According to the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food is being wasted annually. The
FAO report further states that one-third of the total global food production is wasted, costing
the world economy about $750 billion or Rs. 47 lakh crore.

● Food wastage is an issue that has a global scale. According to a report by the National
Resources Defence Council (NRDC), 40 per cent of the food goes uneaten in the US,
whereas in Asia, India and China cause a loss 1.3 billion tonnes of food wastage every year.
In terms of overall food waste — agricultural produce, poultry and milk — India ranks
seventh, with the Russian Federation at the top of the list.

● India’s lower ranking is because most of the countries ranking above it utilise much of their
land in raising poultry, while a major chunk of land in India is under agriculture and this
explains the highest wastage of cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables that occurs in India. A
recent study conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, revealed that only 10 per
cent of foods get cold storage facility in India, this factor, accompanied by inappropriate
supply chain management, has resulted in India becoming a significant contributor towards
food wastage both at pre and post harvest waste in cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables.

● The government has made many efforts to rein in food wastage but clearly, the depth of the
problem is such that the impact of these efforts is hardly up to the mark. India should also

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 take a cue from global practices that are both unorthodox and innovative in order to tackle
food wastage problem. For instance, France has passed unanimous legislation requiring
supermarkets to either give unsold food to charity or send it to farmers for use as feed and
fertiliser.

● Similarly, institutions in Canada are recovering unused and unspoiled food from retailers,
manufacturers, restaurants and caterers and sending them to charities, in the process
delivering ingredients for over 22,000 meals daily. These powerful initiatives have made a
big difference in how these countries have approached a vexing issue.

● India can effectively use technology to script a new chapter in prevention of food wastage.
The government can speed up research in Nano technology with the help of which eco-
friendly and healthy food preservation applications can be invented that are helpful in
preserving food for longer duration and keeping farm produce fresh.

● In addition to these efforts, the government must make it mandatory for the food retailers
across the country to adopt technology standards that allow incentives for the customer to
purchase perishable products that are approaching their expiration dates. This will help
reduce food wastage, maximises grocery retailer revenue, and effectively reduces the global
carbon footprint.

Government Initiatives

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is concerned with formulation and implementation of
the policies for the food processing industries within the overall national priorities and
objectives. If the surplus production of cereals, fruits, vegetables, milk, fish, meat and poultry,
etc., are processed and marketed both inside and outside the country, there will be greater
opportunities for adding to the income of farmers and employment.

Several policy initiatives have been taken from time to time to promote growth of the food
processing sector in the country. Some of these are:

● Exempting all the processed food items from the purview of licensing under the
Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951.

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● Automatic approval for foreign equity upto 100% for most of the processed food items
excepting alcohol and beer subject to certain conditions.
● 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), under government approval route, for trading,
including through e-commerce, in respect of food products manufactured or produced in
India.
● Lower Goods and Service Tax (GST) for raw and processed product; nearby 80% food
products are covered in lower tax slab of 0%, 5% and 12%.
● Provision of profit linked tax holiday under section 80 IB and investment linked
deduction under section 35 AD of Income Tax Act, 1961.
● Classifying loan to food & agrobased processing units and cold chain under agriculture
activities for Priority Sector Lending.
● Cold chain and food parks covered under Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure Sub-
sector.
● Incentivizing creation of infrastructure, expansion of processing capacity and developing
technology to convert raw produce into value added products.
● Setting up of a special fund of Rs. 2000 crore in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development (NABARD) to provide affordable credit for designated food parks and
agro-processing units.
● Government agencies such as the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export
Development Authority (APEDA), National Horticulture Board (NHB) were set up to
help provide financial assistance and drive exports developing cold chain sector. The
establishment of the National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD) in 2012 gives
a much needed impetus to the sector by focusing on promotion and development of an
integrated cold chain for perishable products.
● Equally important is cold storage at the transport stage of the supply chain. The union
agriculture ministry is working in coordination with fresh and healthy enterprises, a fully
owned subsidiary of the government-owned Container Corporation of India, to launch a
special purpose vehicle (SPV), a body to fund projects. In its initial phase, the SPV will
provide complete cooling logistics for fruits such as kinnows, oranges, bananas, and
mangoes.

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● Similarly government has proposed schemes for creating backward and forward linkages
to plug the loopholes of food wastages in the entire production chain.
● “Operation Greens” was announced on the line of “Operation Flood”, with an outlay of
Rs.500 crore to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics,
processing facilities and professional management. Accordingly, the Ministry has
formulated a scheme for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP)
value chain.

Follow these tips to help you reduce food waste, save money and protect
the environment:

1. Plan your shopping: Menu plan your meals for a week. Check the ingredients in your
fridge and cupboards, then write a shopping list for just the extras you need. Take your
list and don’t shop when you’re hungry — you’ll come back with more than you need.
Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of pre-packed so you can buy exactly the amount
you need.

2. Check the dates: If you are not planning to eat a certain item with a short “use by”
date, look for one with a longer “use by” date or just plan to buy it on the day you
require. Be aware on the meaning of date labels: “use by” means that the food is only safe
for consumption until the indicated day (e.g. for meat and fish); “best before” indicates

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the date up until when the product retains its expected quality. Food products are still safe
to consume even after the indicated “best before” day.

3. Consider your budget: Wasting food means wasting money.

4. Keep a healthy fridge: Check the seals and the temperature of your fridge. Food
needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and
longevity. 5 Store food in accordance with the instructions on the packaging

6. Rotate: When you buy new food from the store, bring all the older items in your
cupboards and fridge to the front. Put the new food at the back to reduce the risk of
finding something mouldy in your food storage compartments.

7. Serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everybody can come back
for more once they’ve cleared their plate.

8. Use up your leftovers: Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, they can be used for
lunches the following day, go into the next day’s dinner or be frozen for another
occasion. Fruit that is just going soft can be used to make smoothies or fruit pies.
Vegetables that are starting to wilt can be made into soups.

9. Freeze: If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and
take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch cooked
foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.

10. Turn it to garden food: Some food waste is unavoidable so why not set up a
compost bin for fruit and vegetable peelings? In a few months you will end up with rich,
valuable compost for your plants. If you have cooked food waste, then a kitchen
composter will do the trick. Just feed it with your scraps, sprinkle over a layer of special
microbes and leave to ferment. The resulting product can be used for houseplants and in
the garden.

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 Bibliography

1. https://thecsrjournal.in/food-wastage-in-india-a-serious-concern/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste
3. http://www.ekamoneness.org/every-plate-of-food-we-waste-is-probably-an-entire-days-
meal-for-a-needy-child/
4. http://canengineering.in/dont-waste-food-give-it-to-others/

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