Tons of cooked food thrown away every day

WHILE millions of South Africans go to bed hungry, tons of cooked food gets thrown away daily.

Restaurants and big retailers in the country do not donate unsold hot food at the close of business, and are also reluctant to give the food to their employees.

Food waste is a global problem. The World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa found that 10 million tons of food gets thrown away annually.

Social justice activist and founder of Harare CAN, Khanya Qongqo, runs a soup kitchen that feeds close to 200 people daily in Khayelitsha.

“We can benefit from the food that gets thrown away,” Qongqo said.

“Who throws food away? They (businesses) have this mentality of ‘if I don’t gain, no one must get’. Which is absolutely selfish and ridiculous.”

Qongqo said waste food should be donated to organisations or people on the streets.

Retailers Pick n Pay and Shoprite both said they had a strong focus on food waste and donating to charity organisations. Pick n Pay said their stores worked very hard to accurately prepare enough hot food for its customers each day to minimise waste.

“Should there be unsold hot food at the close of business, we are unfortunately unable to donate this due to food safety concerns as we can’t guarantee how this fresh food will be stored until it is consumed.”

Shoprite said all their supermarkets across the country had a no-wastage policy. On a daily basis they had unsold edible and usable grocery items fit for human consumption, which could be donated.

Dr Zanephy Keyser from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Food and Science Technology Department said businesses were throwing away edible food on purpose.

“Companies do not want to be held liable for an act of charity that has gone horribly wrong.

“The Consumer Act prevents companies from freely giving away leftover food because they can be held liable,” Keyser said.