A forum focusing on food waste management organised by the University of Mauritius (UoM) to mark the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste, was launched this morning by the Acting President of the Republic of Mauritius, Mr Marie Cyril Eddy Boissézon, in Réduit.
The First Counsellor of the European Union (EU) delegation to the Republic of Mauritius, Mrs Florence Van Houtte as well as the Vice Chancellor of the UoM, Professor Sanjeev Kumar Sobhee, were present.
On the same occasion, UoM's Faculty of Agriculture which is benefiting from the support of the EU under its project "Development-Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture" (DeSIRA) initiative, proceeded with the launching of a recipe book entitled 'Valorising Food Leftovers and Imperfect Fruits and Vegetables' as well as its DeSIRA website. Shields and a copy of the book were remitted to all the contributors of the project.
The Acting President also participated in a plaque unveiling ceremony of the faculty's food processing and quality control laboratory that has been upgraded with 17 new food processing and testing equipment under the DeSIRA project.
In his keynote speech, Mr Marie Cyril Eddy Boissézon lauded UoM's initiative aimed at sensitising the Nation on the issue of food loss and food waste, and providing a platform to stakeholders to discuss about related food waste/loss reduction actions. He emphasised that food waste and loss contribute to three planetary crises, namely the climate crisis, the biodiversity and nature crisis, and the pollution and waste crisis - wasting inputs such as land and water and causing greenhouse gas emissions.
He deplored that food waste is money lost, time lost, resources lost, negatively impacts food security and food availability, and contributes to increasing the cost of food while all the resources that were used to produce this food - including water, land, energy, labour and capital go to waste.
On that note, Mr Boissézon underpinned the need to look at our entire food systems and work together to tackle every step of the value chain by supporting solutions that encourage sustainable production, processing, packaging, distribution, and consumption of food. According to him, we must start by setting concrete food loss and waste reduction targets such as improving factories and plants; preventing loss at farm-level; and engaging consumers.
Speaking about the situation in Mauritius, the Acting President underlined that food waste in Mauritius per year amounts to 118,632 tons, equivalent to 325 tons of wasted food in a day or 279 kilos going to waste every minute.
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He, however, expressed satisfaction over the fact that concrete actions are being taken both by the public and private sectors to minimise food waste. He also recalled that Mauritius with the support of the European Union and United Nations Environment Programme, has developed a Roadmap and Action Plan for a Circular Economy to chart the way for the next 10 years to integrate circularity principles in key sectors, including the formulation of national strategies for addressing Food Loss and Food Waste, as well as, the management of nutrients that will lead to a regenerative agriculture.
In his final remarks, the Acting President called for the population to act now in order to hit the target set out in SDG 12.3 to halve per-capita food waste by 2030 at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses. He stressed that food loss and waste reduction must be a collective responsibility for all of us and that it should start at the family-level, through educating our children to respect and appreciate foods.
