Dr. Adel Beg Babaei, the Deputy of Finances and Administration of RIFST said: improving food security indicators in any society requires improving the quantity and quality of food in that society. Defining the term “food security” as to ensure the physical and economic access of all people to adequate, nutritious and healthy food at all times to have a healthy activity and life, he continued one of the most important approaches to increase food supply quantitatively in the country is reducing food waste. Proper policy-making and implementation of these policies are significantly important in societies such as Iran, where, according to official statistics, a significant amount of food is disposed of as waste and discarded from the production chain to consumption.
Referring to the high waste of agricultural products, he added: according to official statistics, on average in Iran, 35% of agricultural products are lost in different parts of the supply chain, equaling food for 15 to 20 million people in the country.
On the other hand, according to some official sources, 80 to 88% of the country's water is consumed in agriculture. Assuming that 80% of water consumption in the country belongs to the agricultural sector and considering that about 35% of products are wasted at different stages, and then about 28% of virtual water loss in the country is through waste.
Whilst drinking water in comparison to the total water consumption of the country is about 7%.
Suppose in the country there were such plans intending to reduce the waste just by 25% in different sectors, then the equivalent of the total drinking water consumption of the country will be saved.
The author of the book "Analytical Review of Food Security and Food Loss Indicators" defining waste and food waste said: to understand the concept of waste in the food industry, it should be noted that part of food waste occurs in retailing and household use of the food products, which goes out of the value cycle.
While another part of food waste in the supply chain at pre-retail levels, this part of food waste is called "Loss".
In general, the study of food supply chain from farm to fork in different communities shows that in developed countries, the largest share of food loss belongs to discarding food and in less developed countries, the highest waste is related to food waste.
In fact, the issue is more focused on waste at the household level, while more food waste happens in the cycle of production, storage, transportation, processing and packaging of the products.
Dr. Babee responding the question “what should be done to reduce waste and manage it ?”, said: Food waste in Iranian society has mainly cultural roots. Therefore, educating and informing people in this field and acquainting people with the current situation as well as reforming the consumption pattern are the most important steps that should be taken.
In this regard, the role played by the media is very important and pivotal. On the other hand, economic and executive factors such as improper distribution of incomes in the society and increasing the income gap of the lower and upper classes, improper distribution of government aid and inappropriate pricing pattern of products are among the reasons leading to food waste. Reducing food waste requires policy reform by decision-making institutions as well as improving productivity by updating agricultural machinery and food industry, developing mechanization, transfer and localization of agricultural produce and processing technology.
On the other hand, reforming the food distribution system, developing knowledge in creating new products applying new technologies, increasing food shelf life, developing methods and processes for reusing waste and producing high value-added products are other measures which should be considered.