Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Innovative and business-driven solutions to reduce foodwaste are critical to enhancing sustainability and reducing environmentalimpact, said Mark Tattlesall, Deputy Ambassador of Australia to Vietnam, in aworkshop on food waste on April 20. 

Focusingon the UN’s sustainable development goals to halve the amount of food waste by2025, Future of Food Vietnam gathered social enterprises and internationalorganisations from Australia and Vietnam to discuss how to manage food waste,create a sustainable food system, and strengthen the economies of bothcountries. 

Acknowledgingthat everyone in the food supply chain plays a role in shaping the future offood, businesses have been taking conscious actions to reduce food waste andincrease sustainability in their operations.

SunRice,a company providing rice food products to nearly 20 countries globally andcurrently operating a rice mill in Dong Thap province, focuses on optimisingits rice value chain.

Thetypical rice value chain in Vietnam involves multiple stakeholders, fromsuppliers, farmers, collectors, semi and final rice millers, to companies andsupermarkets. 

LuuThi Lan, SunRice Group’s head of operations in Vietnam, said: “This means thatthe rice grain produced by farmers will go through multiple intermediarylayers, which resulted in a major loss in the process.”

Bystreamlining the process and improving the technology being used, the companyensures that the rice value is retained and productivity is increased as muchas possible. 

Meanwhile,hotels and restaurants are working to recycle the waste produced at theirlocations in the food and beverage industry. 

Asan initiative on food waste management, JW Marriot built a greenhouse in theirhotel last October.

StevenPeter, executive chef at the hotel, said: “We utilise oyster shells by roastingthem, grinding them up, then using them as fertiliser on the greenhouse at thelakeside garden.”

Afood waste index report conducted by the United Nations EnvironmentalProgramme revealed that on a global scale, one-third of food in the worldproduced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Not only affecting millionsof life and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, food waste also costs theglobal economy nearly 1 trillion USD each year.

RonniKahn, CEO and Founder of food rescue organisation OzHarvest, said: “If we donot fix our food system, if we do no minimise food waste, if we do not tackleall the issues that the global sustainable development goals have highlighted,we will not have the same planet for our children and grandchildren thatwe currently enjoy.”/.