FOOD that can feed about 40,000 people is being wasted every day in Ramadan bazaars in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, Federal Territories Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp) said.

Ummi Kalthum Shuib, director of the government agency in charge of solid waste, said traders waste 47.6 tonnes of food a day.

This translates to food that can feed 39,675 people, she was reported as saying in the New Straits Times today.

Ummi Kalthum said SWCorp’s study found that 52.9 tonnes of waste was produced on average every day from 5,694 business lots in both Federal Territories, roughly 90% of which is food waste.

“If we calculate 90% of 52.9 tonnes, it’s 47.6 tonnes and if it’s divided by per capita food consumption per day, which is 1.2kg, we could have fed 39,675 people with that,” she said.

According to her, the bulk of the waste – an average of 49.8 tonnes – comes from 5,260 bazaar lots in Kuala Lumpur.

Each lot, she said, produced an average 9.5kg of waste.

The 434 lots in Putrajaya produced about 3.2 tonnes of waste or an average of 7.3kg per lot per day, she added.

Ummi Kalthum said 81% of the traders said they recycled the balance of their food, but this was not backed by any evidence.

She added that 16% of the traders claimed that they were able to sell all their food.

“About 74% of them said they had thrown away less than 1kg of food, and the other 8% had thrown away more than 1kg of food.

“That’s quite high, right? We wanted for it to be zero food waste but that’s impossible.”

She attributed the food waste to unplanned preparation by traders. – April 6, 2023.