When we consider that 20% of households in South Africa are food insecure, we should be asking what the agricultural, food production and retail sectors are doing to address this food waste issue.

It is important to reduce the loss of edible food within the supply chain and close the loop between food and organic waste — both of which can potentially improve food security.

We must clarify the distinction between 'food loss' and 'food waste' to address this issue.

Food loss refers to food that spoils or otherwise gets lost during production, processing and distribution stages. It's often due to inefficiencies in supply chains.

Food waste refers to the food byproducts and scraps that get discarded at both the production stage and the consumer stage. Both food loss and food waste contribute to food insecurity.

When we think about food loss, it is not just the food that goes to waste; it is also all the resources that go into producing that food. On average, maize requires about 600 litres of water to produce one kilogram of grain. Food crop also requires fertile soil. For each hectare of maize that is harvested, we lose an average of 13 tonnes of topsoil.

In response to the issue of food loss, many big companies in the food production and retail sectors have signed the Voluntary Food Loss and Waste Agreement, an industry intervention that looks at redistributing the edible food surplus that does not go to market to community food programmes.

Along with addressing food loss, closing the loop on food waste offers the opportunity to build a more sustainable agricultural sector. Repurposing food waste as a secondary resource, especially through composting, allows us to regenerate our soils through the application of organic compost.

This is a better and more sustainable soil treatment approach compared to fertiliser use. When conserving our fertile agricultural land, we need to think long-term. If we are going to continue using land extensively for agriculture, we need to adopt sustainable, regenerative agricultural practices, with large-scale commercial composting being one of them.

World Food Day is celebrated on 16 October and has become a global campaign aimed at increasing awareness around the issues that cause food insecurity. On World Food Day, we encourage all consumers to support the retail outlets, restaurants and food brands that have adopted practices to minimise food loss and waste.

Next time you visit your local shopping mall, ask the manager what they do with their food waste.

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