Feast for some, famine for many this Christmas
At least 30% of SA’s food is wasted — while people starve
Christmas is so close you can almost taste the mountains of food.
But our inclination for meals with “seven colours” and a culture of cooking for the unexpected guest is compromising the country’s food security and contributing to the 10 million tons of food wasted annually.
The problem was highlighted this week at the International Conference on Global Food Security in Cape Town, which was told that more than half the population is food insecure despite South Africa being a net food exporter.
At least 30% of locally produced food is wasted, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, whose head of waste research, Suzan Oelofse, said meals with a greater variety of foods often resulted in more waste — during preparation and through food not being eaten.
“We often prepare food for the unexpected visitor, who seldom arrives in time to join the meal,” Oelofse told the Sunday Times.
“Christmas is an excellent example of feasting where a lot of food is prepared and large amounts of leftover food becomes waste. Some people simply don’t eat leftover food, resulting in wastage. Another problem is that leftover food often remains forgotten at the back of the fridge and end up going to waste.”
Judging the safety
Another reason safe and edible food is dumped is because of a lack of understanding about date labels on packaging.
Oelofse said consumers have become heavily reliant on labels when making judgments about food safety. “This results in large quantities of food that is still fit for consumption becoming waste. Consumers need to be trained on how to judge the safety of food based on appearance, smell and taste. This is how people [did] it in the days before date labelling.”
Enough food for all
Julian May, of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape, said South Africa produced more than enough food, both in terms of caloric adequacy and nutritional content, to feed the entire population.
“Firstly, we are not a country struggling to put food on our supermarket shelves,” May said.
“There is an efficient food system that, despite the effects of climatic change, unresolved land issues and an insalubrious investment environment, continues to produce, process and distribute food that is relatively cheap and safe.”
A local NGO agrees and has developed a first-of-its-kind digital “foodbanking platform”, which links retailers with beneficiary organisations to direct surplus food away from landfills and towards people in need.
FoodForward SA provided 14.5 million meals to 250 000 South Africans last year at a cost of just 86c a meal.
It connected 600 nonprofit organisations to donors, including major retailers, which contributed 4 350 tons of food.
One of its beneficiaries, which would not be able to function without the donations, is the Abaphumeleli Home of Safety for abandoned and orphaned children in Khayelitsha. The home receives enough food for the 40 or so children it cares for at any given time.
Never sleep hungry
“The children never sleep hungry. This initiative helps a lot to keep my children fed and healthy with the food that they bring [us],” said Abaphumeleli director Evelyn Makasi.
In 2015, according to Stats SA, a quarter of the population — 13.8 million people — were living below the food poverty line of R17.48 a day. This is the amount needed for minimum energy requirements.
May said the government had a “weak capability” to implement policies on food security and nutrition.
“The limited capacity of government to influence nutrition outcomes in the face of a highly concentrated food and beverage industry is a further factor,” he said.
“Collusion between producers and distributors has already been established in which food prices of essential staples were fixed.”
The children never sleep hungry. This initiative helps a lot to keep my children fed and healthy Evelyn Makasi Abaphumeleli Home of Safety director