Save Food Share Food

Introduction to Save Food, Share Food:

Save Food, Share Food, Share Joy in an initiative to promote food donation and curb food waste & food loss in the country. The platform serves a network of the Food Collection Agencies and brings together Food businesses, Corporates, Civil Society Organizations, Citizens, Volunteers, Government and Local bodies to work in sync with each other to prevent food loss or waste throughout the supply chain, from production to household consumption.

What is IFSA?

The Indian Food Sharing Alliance, (IFSA) is a social initiative by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to help solve India’s food waste and hunger crisis by integrating various partner organizations, Food Recovery Agencies and NGO’s.

Aims and Objectives:

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) plays a key role not only in food safety and hygiene but also in ensuring availability of wholesome food and encouraging citizens to eat the right foods. Therefore, the aim of FSSAI via IFSA is primarily to :

• Care: Help minimize food wastage across the supply chain by means of redistribution to poor and needy.
• Aware: Mobilize people to minimize their food wastage through widespread awareness program across the country by Food Recovery Agencies.
• Share: Facilitate safe distribution of surplus food by connecting trained food recovery agencies with food chains.
• Prepare: Educate food business on best practices and encourage them to adopt the same in order to prevent food loss along the supply chain.
• Declare: Provide strategic policy, regulatory, and programme support to food loss and waste reduction initiatives.

Defining Food Waste, Loss & Surplus:

There is a distinction between food loss, food waste and food surplus; these terms are often confused with one another

• • Food Waste: Food waste refers to food that is wasted or thrown away intentionally due to various reasons such as excess consumption (people buying or cooking more food that they can consume), or because food that has gone bad or rotten due to hoarding by consumers.
  • Food Loss: Food loss refers to the food that is lost through the supply chain right from the initial production down to the final consume. This may happen because of problems in harvesting, storing, packing, transport, infrastructure or market / price mechanisms.
  • Food Surplus: This refers to the overproduction of food and this food usually never reaches the end consumer as it is thrown away at the vendor level itself.

Why is Prevention of Food Waste Important?

Regulation and Guidance for safe and easy recovery of surplus food

Guidance For School:

1. Educating students value of Food
   • Students should be taught the value of food. There should be sessions /seminars on importance of Food.
   • Posters should be displayed at various places in campus to make students aware about importance of Food.
   • Teaching students the concept of 3Rs educe,Reuse & Recycle
2. Installation of separate bins
   • Separate color coded bins should be installed for segregating recyclable and non- recyclable food.
   • Students should be encouraged for using separate bins and thus segregating food waste.
3. Set Up Share Table
   • Set up a share table, a place where students can return whole items that they choose not to eat so that they are available for others who may want additional helpings. Food from a share table can be donated to:
   • Food donating refrigerator
   • Compost leftovers to fertilize school’s garden
4. Food Donating Refrigerator
   • Students can be motivated to bring little extra food, which will be collected and stored in refrigerator. Later collected food can be donated to local food donating agencies.
5. Start a Club
   • Start a club focused on reducing food waste.
   • Work with students to conduct food waste tally or to serve as monitors during lunch to make sure waste is reduced and being put in the correct bin.
6. Awareness Campaign
   • Schools should run awareness campaigns for their students, making them aware of implications from wasting food.
   • Competitive events on Food safety and security such as debate, essay writing, games, painting competition etc. should be organized.
   • Regular Food collection drives should be organized in school to collect surplus food from students which can be used for donating to the needy people
7. Partnership with Local Food Donor NGOs
   • Partner with local non-profits organizations that can use the food for a food pantry or meals for their community. Further, Food collection drives can be run in the community by collecting and storing food and later distributing it to the needy people.

Guidance for Home:

1. Shop Smartly
   • Plan meals in advance
   • Use Grocery lists
   • Avoid impulsive buys
2. Be Realistic
   • Buy exactly what you need. Avoid unnecessary stocking up the goods.
3. Place foods in the proper storage area (refrigerator or freezer) quickly to avoid bacterial growth
   • Freezer – frozen foods, vegetables and meats, precooked frozen meals, ice creams and ice.
   • Refrigerator – fruits, vegetables, cheese, milk, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cooked food: leftovers
   • Cool Places – oils and fats, canned foods.
   • Room temperature – cereal and pulses, root and tubers, bananas, spices and condiments.
4. Don’t over peel
   • Peeling of fruits and vegetables should be done carefully and over peeling should be avoided as it creates food waste.
5. Storage
   • An overview about some of the food products storage conditions and their use by dates attached below:
6. Reuse leftovers
   • Excess food should be stored at optimum temperature for later use.
   • Example: pickles, salads, lemon etc., after storing in refrigerator can be reused as flavoring agents if left earlier.
7. Monitor what you throw
   • Throw only unavoidable food waste items eg; – scraps, peels etc;
   • Keep a strict watch over what you are throwing and thus act accordingly to reduce food waste.
8. While having Meal
   • Check in your belly: Take a moment to ask your body what and how much it wants to eat.
   • Clean your plate:Before leaving the dining table, ensure your plate is clean i.e.; no leftovers.
   • Educate others: Make family members aware about the issue of food loss and this will make them more attentive to waste less.
   • Don’t over-serve: Over-serving will lead to generation of leftovers therefore it should be avoided.
9. Organize Dinner / Party of surplus food
   • In case food is available in excess, organize dinner/party for neighbors/ friends so that wastage of food can be prevented.
10. Use it up all
    • Have a plan B to use all the surplus food by preparing new dish or feed for pets before it gets expired.
    • Look for recipes on websites that can be searched for by ingredients to use up food at home.
11. Community Kitchens
    • A group of people who meet on regular basis can plan, cook and share healthy, affordable meals. These kitchens thus enable the development of food independence skills such as food growing and harvesting, meal planning, budgeting, food preparation and cooking.
12. Preserve food The various actions of micro-organisms result in the loss of edibility or nutritive value of food. By canning, pickling or drying, the life span of some foods can be increased.
    • Drying:This process acts by reducing the moisture content in the food which in turn arrests bacterial growth. Drying can be done either by direct exposure to sun, using dryer or oven. Fruits and vegetables can also be preserved by this method.
    • Freezing:Micro-organisms require a certain level of temperature for their survival. Freezing foods lower the temperature to levels that make the environment unsuitable for microbial growth. Low temperatures can be achieved by using freezer.
    • Canning:In this process, the food is first processed and then sealed in airtight containers. While themicro-organisms are killed by processing the food, their entry and proliferation is restricted by canning it in an airtight environment.
    • Pickling:Cucumber, beef, peppers and some vegetables may be preserved by pickling. This technique involves dipping the food in some liquid chemical that prevents the growth of micro-organisms but still maintains edibility of the food. The preserving liquids used are vinegar, brine, alcohol and some other oils.
13. Donate Food Donate what you won’t use- Donate it to a food kitchen/ local food bank organizations before it expires so it can be consumed by someone who needs it.
    • Donate the gross stuff, too!- Club together in a colony to jointly collect the gross stuff and donate it to environment friendly waste disposal techniques.

Guidelines for Workplace:

1. 1. Share surplus Food
      • In order to avoid surplus Food loss, share it with colleagues and if left further distribute it to the needy people.
   2. Install Community refrigerator
      • Keep surplus or leftover food at or below 4oC in the refrigerator common to all, so that it can be consumed later.
   3. Installation of oven
      • For maintaining temperature of cooked food, use microwave oven to reheat it until it attains internal temperature of 70oC.
   4. Raising awareness
      • Make employees aware about preventing food loss.
      • Posters can be pasted at various locations in workplace to aware and educate employees about food loss.
   5. Volunteering
      • Interested people can volunteer for the cause of reducing surplus food loss. People can volunteer alternatively on different days based on their interest.
   6. Use Separate bins
      • Separate bins should be provided in canteens for the various items that are to be recycled such as aluminum cans, paper, plastic packaging and glass. These should be labeled clearly to easily identify the waste type.
   7. Tips to reduce Food loss
      • If large amounts of food are left as wastage, consider reducing the size of portions served.
      • If eating out, split a dish with colleague so you don’t waste half of the giant portion size.
      • When eating in a cafeteria, skip the tray.
      • Doing so is associated with a reduction in food waste, possibly because it’s harder for people to carry more food than they can actually eat.
   8. Donate Food
      • Donate what you won’t use – Donate itto a food kitchen /Food bank before it expires so it can be consumed by someone who needs it.
      • Donate the gross stuff, too – Club together in a colony to jointly collect the gross stuff and donate it to environment friendly waste disposal techniques.

Guidelines for Restaurants:

1. PLANNING
   • Policy Formulation
     • Develop food waste management policy with clear objectives, procedures and goals.
     • Avoid over-purchasing, over-stocking and spoilage of food.
   • Menu Design
     • Properly plan and regularly review menu
     • Obtain feedback from guests on their preferences for meal types and portion sizes hence effectively forecast customers’ demand on food.
   • SMART TIPS: Serving Food in Buffets
     • Properly manage quantity of serving food in buffet (e.g. serve in smaller containers, half-refill near end of buffet session).
     • Pre-portion or set smaller portion for each type of food.
     • Consider providing smaller plates and encourage the customers to head back for refills.
2. STORAGE
   • Store food with proper control of stock level, conditions, approaches & procedures, etc.
   • Return unused food back to refrigerator immediately
   • Inspect and maintain proper functioning of storage facilities regularly.
3. HANDLING
   • Avoid over-trimming in the preparation of bulk meats and whole vegetables
   • Make good use of surplus food and/or food trimmings for second dish
   • Properly handle and prepare food (including procedures, temperature, personal hygiene, pest control and equipment handling, etc.) to prevent contamination and to minimize spoilage.
4. DONATION
   • Identify donation opportunities arising from food preparation (pre-consumption food) and surplus food based on local requirements and/or established guidelines
   • Donate surplus food to food recycling banks or charitable organizations in compliance with local requirements and/or established guidelines
5. RECYCLING
   • • Identify recyclable and non-recyclable food waste for ease of separating and collecting food waste for recycling.

   Examples of recyclable food waste: Vegetables, meat, flour, rice, bread, egg shells and tea leaves, etc.

6. TRAINING AND EDUCATION
   • Provide training to staff to instill food waste reduction culture and to educate good practices on food waste management.
   • Encourage staff to provide suggestions on possible improvement options.
   • Raise and educate customer awareness to help prevent over-ordering and reduce food waste (e.g. reminder/promotion material at menu and/or dining table etc.)

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