World Food Day is just around the corner. This day is celebrated to honor the founding of FOOD. In Asia, however, a contrasting report discovered that 77 percent of Singaporeans regularly waste their food at home, according to Channel News Asia.
The survey done by Electrolux, also found that only 33 percent of the participants prepare food according to the number of people eating and in most cases this is the reason for excessive food preparation. To add to that, only 35% of the respondents reuse leftovers while the other 92 percent leave leftovers in the fridge and after a few days dispose them.
Moreover, 29 percent said they dislike eating leftovers and while almost half just forget about the leftovers because they are often out of sight or pushed behind the fridge. Sadly, most of these leftovers then become expired.
Last year, 788,600 tons of food which is equivalent to 108 full load double-decker buses was wasted in Singapore. This result is according to statistics released by the National Environment Agency. The survey aims to highlight the contribution of the households that contributed to the country's food waste. The survey questionnaire had multiple choice questions about how food is prepared and cooked and of course dining habits. The survey participants were aged 18-65 years old respectively. The other survey results included 69 percent of respondents who claimed they are passionate foodies, however 41 percent of the group thinks about food waste occasionally.
The Electrolux Food Waste At Home Survey also planned to launch the company's six-week community initiative with the hashtag #happyplatesg, which aims at encouraging to make a commitment to finish their food during meal time and not add to the food waste.
Kenneth Ng, Electrolux's head of major appliances, Asia Pacific said that more than 62 percent are now making an effort to eat at home more, the volume of the nation's food waste each month is also growing. He added that the company is excited to kick-start the initiative in the country to make everyone responsible about food waste and commit to make a change starting in every home. In fact, a dedicated microsite has been set up to provide public awareness. From recipe inspiration, cooking tips, campaign updates and of course how to get involved in the campaign, you can find all these information in the said site. The campaign also intends to the help 1,000 families from their beneficiary, The Food Bank Singapore.
From today until Nov 22, everyone is encouraged to post pictures of their emptied plates via Instagram with the hahstag #happyplatesg. For every three hashtags, it will be converted to an Electrolux Happy Food bundle, meaning that they need a total of 3,000 hashtags to create 1,000 food bundles.
