How to Turn India's Food Waste Problem Into An Opportunity

Food waste is not all about cooked food being wasted. This includes all levels from harvesting, storing, processing, packaging, transporting and consuming food. The gross wastage that is happening in India now translates to a gross misspend of precious resources such as water, energy, and capital among others. According to reports, from the UN it is estimated that up to 40 percent of the food produced in India is either wasted or lost.

A major challenge that India faces in this area is that food gets supplied over a logistics supply chain that has many gaps and this causes the wastage. If these gaps can be trimmed, then food wastage can be cut. One in three children is a malnourished Indian child and therefore it is imperative that this food waste is done away with and this statistic removed.

Technology that can be adopted in every stage of the food supply chain can help to overcome this problem of food waste. Reefer container technology helps to keep food fresh for a long time. This enables the food producers to reach fresh food to the millions across the world even after a month. 

It has been published that the demand for refrigerated food products has been steadily rising at the rate of 18 percent for many years now and is likely to hit 19 percent before 2022. The top refrigerated materials comprise vegetables, fruits, and fish. The per capita availability of these materials is low in our country as the losses after harvest is high. This is because refrigeration facilities and infrastructure in this line are low. If this infrastructure is improved, there will be a reduction in transit time.

In India, with government assistance, some states are going on to build infrastructure like multi-commodity cold-storage chambers for horticulture produce. Individuals are also helping to set up a network of packing houses and cold storages to prevent the damage that can occur for the perishables like vegetables, fish, fruits, and flowers. 

Individuals and the government need to understand the importance of technology that helps to reduce food loss in the different stages of the food supply chain. Using the best app to buy home grown products locally, using the latest logistics systems, monitoring relevant data, improved storage and packaging facilities all supported by AI technologies can serve to curb food wastage. A massive impact can be created even at the end of the food supply chain by using the best online food takeaway app because of the increased penetration and usage of smartphones across all the segments of society. 

About FoodPulsar

A social food-sharing platform that helps to restructure the local food-sharing prospects has been incorporated in FoodPulsar. This app helps an individual to connect to local home-grown food producers and revalue their food by helping them to distribute and sell it. This curbs wastage. Additional benefits that accrue in the longer term are environment preservation, affordable food and enable producers to sell the foodstuff produced.