The Peninsula: Qatar Pays Great Attention to Wastage of Food

Doha, April 06 (QNA) - In its Wednesday's editorial, English-language newspaper The Peninsula said that Qatar, even though not a major food producer, has been paying great attention to wastage of food. Recently the Ministry of Municipality has launched a survey, the first phase of which is already over, to develop a national food waste baseline, the newspaper said. The survey, being conducted by the Food Security Department at the Ministry in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), aims at formulating appropriate policies and raising awareness about the issue, the paper noted. The paper underlined that the country has adopted a waste management programme, under which a highly efficient supply chain is being developed to transport food items from ports to warehouses and then to the consumers in a way to reduce the chances of food waste. The paper added that when it comes to the issue in global perspective, roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption, some 1.3 billion tonnes, gets lost or wasted annually, according to a UNEP study. In conclusion, The Peninsula said that fruits, vegetables and tubers, according to the study says, have the highest wastage rates of any food, pointing out that in n developing countries, 40 percent of losses happen at post-harvest and processing levels, while in industrialised countries more than 40 percent of losses at retail and consumer levels. (QNA)