Food waste

We all love food.  I bet a lot of us have enjoyed sumptuous meals and buffets and are guilty of gluttony. And, of course, have you ever ordered one dish too many? Chinese traditionally order A LOT of dishes to impress their guests with the wealth they have, and the guest, out of politeness always finishes everything in his rice bowl and will agree to seconds (btw, I don't know where on earth HSBC got the idea that its rude for guests to finish everything at a Chinese meal. I was definitely not taught that by my family). Anyway, you can imagine how much would go to waste.  Usually, we would "da bau" or "lik jau" ie. doggy bag it, but if you're not with family, it's difficult to do that unless you're thick skinned.

In Singapore, we produced about 0.6 tonnes of food waste in 2008 (source: zerowaste) and we also have our share of volunteers who distribute unsold food to the needy.  Food from the Heart, and Food for All are two of the most active ones. This is very meaningful.

IKEA Singapore does food waste recycling. Apparently, it sends its food waste to one of Singapore's food waste recycling facility IUT. The waste cooking oil is recycled at Alpha Biofuels into biofuel. I wonder what our supermarkets do? I know Cold Storage will always have a clear out section of food that's nearing it's sell by or use by dates.  Hmmm.... do you get confused by these dates?  In the UK, they are going to scrap them as they think that they mislead us folks into think that the food is not edible.