FOOD WASTAGE IN INDIA

Topic – Research Paper

Subject – Economics

Submitted to – Prof. Amir Ullah Khan

Submitted By – Aryan Garg

Roll No. – 2019 – 5LLB – 11

Year I Semester I

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Contents
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................................3

KEYWORDS............................................................................................................................................3

DEFINITION............................................................................................................................................3

HYPOTHESIS...........................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................6

LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................................8

FOOD WASTE CASES IN INDIA...............................................................................................................9

FOOD WASTE IN HOTELS.....................................................................................................................10

Research Methodology on Hotels....................................................................................................10

FOOD WASTE IN HOUSES....................................................................................................................13

Economics about Household food waste.........................................................................................14

Problems in different steps of waste processing.............................................................................14
What can be the solution................................................................................................................15
THE CASE OF TEMPLES........................................................................................................................17

THE CASE STUDY OF “HELP US GREEN”...........................................................................................17

CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................................18

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................19

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ABSTRACT

Through the course of the research paper, the author would relate food waste with economics
and would try to show how food waste is affecting the situation of the country and the people.
Apart from the several problems being faced because of food waste, the concern that is
associated with the waste in the context of hotels and restaurants, homes and temples where
maximum waste is generated is also covered. This paper, in the end, would try to make the
readers aware of the food waste management practices in the country and would use the
methodology of tackling the problem compiling the available resources through a
questionnaire, case study, and economists’ views.

KEYWORDS

Food waste/surplus food, food consumption, consumer perception and practices, Household
food consumption, supply chain, consumption and production trends.

DEFINITION

1. Food Waste / Surplus Food – According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO), Food Waste refers to “the discarding or alternative (no – food) use of food that is
safe and nutritious for the consumption of human beings.” Wastage of food can occur in a
variety of ways:
a. Produce that does not comply with the set standards as to what is optimal in shape, size,
material, consumption, etc. are thrown away or discarded, that is, they are removed from
the supply chain.
b. Foods or other consumer products that have crossed the expiry date are discarded from
the supply chain by the sellers that include wholesalers and retailers.
c. Some foods are leftover stock requirements and thus become out of the use of the general
public or even the sellers thus they are thrown away.

2. Food Consumption – Food Consumption is generally defined as the amount of food

available for the consumption of human beings as estimated by the Food and Agriculture

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Organisation (FAO) Food Balance Sheet. However, it is often observed that the actual
quantity of the total consumption of food is way lesser as per the predicted quantity because
of the wastage of food or the loss of food during in the houses, during the food cycle
including storage, preparation, cooking, or maybe quantities of food fed to animals that go
waste.

3. Consumer Perception and Practice – It refers to the rights and responsibilities of a

consumer regarding food waste. As the highest amount of food waste is generated from
households, it is expected from them to have a common sort of understanding as to how one
should manage the waste.

4. Household food consumption – it is defined as the total quantity of food and relative
items available for consumption in the houses, generally, it excludes the food items that are
taken from outside unless prepared from home.

5. Supply Chain – it is basically defined as a cycle between a firm and its suppliers or
independent wholesalers and retailers (including agents) to produce and distribute the
products to final consumers. This cycle includes different sorts of activities, people, entities
information and resources. The supply chain also represents the major steps and procedures
that are included to get a product or a service from its raw stage to the ultimate consumer.

Supply chains are generally developed by the firm and the companies so that they can reduce
their cost of production and can reach wider public to remain in the competition.

6. Consumption trends – Habits and perceptions that are vested in the consumers of goods
or services. Consumer trends basically show what a consumer is purchasing and what
exactly is his net spend. Data that is collected on various trends also includes information on
various behaviors that consumers show while they buy a product and how companies use
effective techniques to bring their product to the light to general product.

7. Production trends – Gradual increase or decrease in the production of a good or service

is known as the production trend. It does not only include an increase or a decrease but also
the factors that lead to the upgrade and downgrade of those products.

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HYPOTHESIS

“Feed people, not landfills. If the food that is wasted in landfills is reduced, harmful methane
emissions that play a major part in climate change can be cut, our natural resources can be
saved, malnutrition and starvation could be checked, and planet for future generations can
be protected. All and all it will not just have social impact but economic impact as well.”

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INTRODUCTION

Wastage of food generally refers to the situation in which one is throwing away the excess
food that is not needed since one has taken extra food in the plate which one does not want to
eat or does not have the required capacity to eat. Wastage does not only happen while eating
but can happen at each level whether it is the production stage, the processing stage or even
the stage of packaging, which is actually the food supply chain (consisting of activities like
harvesting, storage, packaging, transportation to different places, etc.) as the food needs to go
to the market for the purpose of sale and consumption.

Food waste can be accidental, that is, having no intention to waste the food but circumstances
leads to its wasting while it is sometimes seen that it could be intentional as well.

This problem of food waste is not just limited to it being wasted but the after-effects of it as
well. It includes the problem of finding places of throwing away and accumulating the waste,
problem of the emission of certain harmful gases, problems of starvation and it thus involves
the problem of devising an adequate policy to deal with the waste by the concerned
authorities.

Food wastage is the problem of not just some nations but the world as a whole. The overall
market value of food products being wasted is USD 936 billion, surpassing the overall GDP
of countries such as Indonesia and the Netherland. Coming to the context of India, it carries
on with itself the burden of being ranked 100 out of a total of 119 countries in terms of the
Global Hunger Index behind the likes of Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc. Billions of rupees are spent by
the government of the country on providing nutritional security of the country. Through the
mid-day meal scheme, twelve million kids are served food every day. According to the latest
data by the United Nations, over 10 lakh students die before the age of five due to starvation
or malnutrition. Around four lakh people in India sustain their life through rag picking and
the other six lakhs through begging. Monthly income of around forty percent of the people is
less than rupees ten thousand and around 50 percent of the household survives on temporary
wages and has no regular and real source of income.

The above stats show an irony, that in India where millions of people are starving to death
and are malnourished, several tons of food is being wasted every day by the citizens. As we
reckon the fact that around 194 million people sleep without having food in this country, the

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total worth of food that is wasted is around Rs. 88,800 crore which indeed amounts to around
R. 240 crore worth of food per day.i

Apart from the problem of starvation, the problem of emissions is also a major concern.
According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Wastage Footprint
and Climate Change, “4.4 GtCO or about 8% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions is
generated by global food loss and wastes.” India, according to the reports of 2011, was the
3rd largest GHG emitting country in the world.ii

Then comes the problem of waste management. The increase in the kinds of wastes that are
generated due to the by-product of economic development in the country is a huge issue.
Urbanization is one of the reasons the country is facing. According to the statistics, around
400 million citizens live in urban areas, i.e. towns and cities and around 60 million tonnes of
municipal solid waste are generated from these households. The collection amounts to around
43 million tonnes and out of that, around 12 million tonnes is treated and 31 million tonnes
are dumped into landfills. The amount of waste is increasing day by day and the size of
landfills is not enough to hold all the waste.iii

If food wastage were a country, it would have been 3rd largest

country gas emittor via waste
12

10

6
10.7

4
5.8
2 4.4
2.9 2.3
0
China United States Food Loss and India Russia
Waste

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LITERATURE REVIEW

After looking at the previous works of various individuals and organizations, we can come to
the following theoretical bases :

a. Vienna University of Economics and Business – it is the study that focused on how
contextual aspects – such as objects, materials, technologies, and infrastructure –
shape food routines, in particular, shopping and storing practices.iv
b. WRAP – the study showed that food waste collections promote food waste
prevention behavior.
c. Cornell – states that in the commercial kitchen field, restaurants are one of the major
waste products.
d. Barton – states that if the total cost of the food waste is estimated, 40 percent is
plated meat.v
e. National Restaurant Association – of the total take away services, approximately 53
percent of the year 2010 in take away services. These practices are the one that
enhances the wastage of foods.vi
f. Agriculture And Applied Economics Association – psychological variables have an
important role to play in the behavior of the buyer or consumer in terms of the food
being wasted.vii
g. Branstad – the importance of technology such as the visual cue function that would
act as technical equipment for the sorting of waste.
h. Refsgaard and Magnussen – food waste sorting is impacted by the institutional
context and these, in turn, might shape consumers' attitudes.
i. Curry – food waste amounts to 50 percent of the total waste that is generated in the
hotel industry.viii
j. Vikas Mohan – emphasized the use of packaging techniques and the method of
disposal of waste that can help in reducing the waste generated by food products. ix

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FOOD WASTE CASES IN INDIA

The maximum contribution for food waste in India is by:

1. Hotels (including marriages, parties, etc.)

2. Homes
3. Temples

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FOOD WASTE IN HOTELS

The hotel industry in India is one of the largest contributors in the national income with
approximately 7 percent share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since hotels and
restaurants require huge amount of energy resources and food products, the number of wastes
generated by them cannot be ignored. This wastage can occur because of a lot of reasons. In
the quest of providing best services to the customers in order to stay in the competition,
hotels tend to spend a lot of presentations and taste. This eventually leads to a lot of wastage
in food. Sometimes customer is given way more options than he actually requires so he
couldn’t eat all of it and because of the perishable nature of the food items, they get wasted.

Due to the growing demand for hotels and the living standards of the people, hospitality
business is thriving. According to the HVS “forecasting Hotel Room Requirements” report
for the year 2021,the estimated requirement of the hotel rooms by 2021 is around 343000.
This directly correlates to the increase in demand which would lead to the rise in the wastage
of food.

Research Methodology on Hotels

The hotels are therefore have adopted certain practices regarding the reduction of food waste,
which would not only save their cost but also push forward the goal of sustainable
development.

The study regarding food waste in the hotel was done by Central University of Haryana
involving a total of 225 employees from different hotel chains and restaurants across the
country and they were basically associated with food distribution and food production. They
were asked certain questions regarding the techniques that are used by them for reduction in
the food wastages in their respective enterprises.

Table 1. various practices adopted by the hotels for managing wastage of food.

Hygienic storage of food Compost Mechanisms

Portion Control Training of Employees
FIFO Separate food wastage bins
Recycling of food waste Surplus Food for Staff Meals

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 Reduction of Waste Keeping adequate track of Demand and
supply

Table – 2, Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Number (Total Percentage)

Age Below 20 50 (22.22)
20-30 55 (24.44)
30-40 75 (33.33)
40-50 45 (20)
Education 10+2 180 (80)
Graduation 45 (20)
Gender Male 200 (88.88)
Female 25 (11.11)
NOTE – The total number has been approximated for calculation convenience.

The above table shows the demographic profile of the respondents in the aforementioned
study, that is, the hotel and restaurant employees. In toto, two hundred and twenty-five
employees were contacted, out of which one-third of the employees were between thirty and
forty years of age. As far as the qualifications are concerned, most of them (80 per cent) were
school pass outs while the rest, that is 20 per cent are graduates (having done their graduation
with a hotel management degree). As we can extrapolate from the study, most of the people
in the study were males (around 89 per cent) while the rest of the are females (around 11 per
cent)

After that, certain questions were asked from the respondents regarding the sort of practices
their institutions are adopting to counter or manage the problem of food waste. The
demographic profile of the workers was also taken to see the sort of work they are
undertaking according to their respective qualifications and capabilities. It was understood
from the study that many of these activities were being taken by the hotels. The measure that
was taken by most of the hotels is waste reduction with almost every employee mentioning it,
which was then followed by storage and compost services. Some people also mentioned
about the sort of training that was given to them, especially the people with higher secondary
distinction.

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 Wastage in Hotels

34

45

21

Food Preparation Spoilage Customer Plates

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FOOD WASTE IN HOUSES

It is not uncommon for us to hear the terms, “India has 1.3 billion population and feeding
them is a big problem” and also “India wastes as much food in a day as the United Kingdom
can consume in a day.” Thus, waste management from houses is one of the most critical
problems of India.

According to the reports of 2001, “India generated 46 million tonnes of house waste and by
2048 this number is predicted to reach an estimate of 125 million tonnes, making India the
largest house waste contributor of the world.”
If we talk about the waste being produced by the houses in Indian cities, only twenty-five
percent of it is processed. The remaining is left open and is dumped into landfills. Only eight
states out of a total of twenty-eight states and seven union territories are processing more than
half of the total house waste and the rest are performing way below par.
As published by the Times of India, “states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West
Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand don't process even 10% of their municipal garbage
while Arunachal Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli don't process municipal garbage at all.
Jammu & Kashmir process a mere 1%.Chhattisgarh (74%) tops the list and is one of only
four states that process more than 60 per cent of municipal garbage. Telangana (67 per cent),
Sikkim (66 per cent), and Goa (62 per cent) are the other in this category. Delhi processed 55
per cent of its garbage.”

Coming over to the composition of these house wastes, they comprise of biodegradable waste
(including kitchen and food waste, green wastes like vegetables, flowers, leaves and fruits),
recyclable waste (including paper, glass, bottle, cans, metals etc.) inert wastes ( dirt, debris
etc.), composite waste (waste clothing, tetra packs, waste plastics etc.) Domestic Hazardous
Waste (toxic and other hazardous things included). Out of these biodegradable wastes
account for over 60 per cent of the wastes and out of the biodegradable wastes, food wastes
account for over 80 per cent. Thus it is important for the household to manage waste.

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Economics about Household food waste

According to Food Corporation of India (FCI), 1.94 lakh Metric tons of food grains were
wasted between the years 2003 and 2015. The share of wheat and rice in the total food wasted
in household is 14 and eighty-four percent respectively. According to the statistics,
approximately 24000 MT of food grain is wasted annually and if we take into account the
prevailing Minimum Support Price (MSP), this wastage is equal to around 21000 crore
rupees.

This household waste affects the overall nutrition level of the country. The food that is
wasted from the households can easily be used to feed people too increase the nutrition level.
According to a report by The Lancet Journal, India ranks 143 out of a total of 183 countries
in terms of the nutritional status of the countries. This is also one of the important sustainable
development goals.

According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2011 – 2012, a person
from the rural or the village area of the country consumes 4.29-kilo grams of wheat and 5.98-
kilo grams of rice in a month. This means that if this quantum of food wasted over this period
were to be given to the population of the country, it could easily feed around five and a half
lakh people with wheat and around six lakh people with rice per month.

Problems in different steps of waste processing

1. Segregation – A proper segregation is necessary at the household level as it is often

observed that the community is ignorant of the separation of waste. Segregation is
generally practiced by the unorganized sectors or by the waste producers. It occurs in
a very unsafe environment and hazardous conditions are prevalent there. They do this
because effectiveness of segregation is reasonably low as unorganized sector
segregates only valuable discarded constituents from waste stream which can
guarantee them comparatively higher economic return in the recycling market.x On
various occasions, instances of mishandling of these wastes are seen that again incurs
cost. In terms of food waste, dry food waste and liquid food waste need to be
segregated. Both have their own uses.
2. Collection – waste that is generated from the households is generally transferred into
public dustbins that are made from metals, different types of concrete, etc. the gas that

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 is emitted from the combination of the waste with the dustbin content is dangerous for
the health of the people and a lot of costs is spent on the cure. Thus proper use of
plastic dustbins along with the areas they need to be placed needs to be seen.
3. Reuse / Recycle – This entails activities like collecting the waste from various types
of materials from the wastes. Since the wastes that remain unsegregated can not be
used, optimal recycling becomes a distant dream. This indeed increases a lot of costs
that the products cannot be used again. Recycling of the materials decreases the cost
to a large extent. As far as food waste is concerned, we can dispose any food that we
don’t eat or throw away. It can be recycled into a compost which will act as a good
quality soil improver and a fertilizer as well. It can even act as an electricity generator
that would be beneficial for people and the country as a whole.
4. Transportation – modes of transportation that are usually used in waste management
are bullock carts, tractors, dumpers, trailers, compactors and so on. The coverage area
of the trucks is way more than the number of vehicles or other means that are actually
in place are pretty less. Therefore much of the waste remains there itself and is not
actually taking part in the further process. In the transportation process, the waste is
actually taken from landfills and other areas to transfer stations where the composting
process starts, but these composting places are also very few in number. Only a few
metropolitans like Mumbai have these.

What can be the solution

According to economists, waste disposal pricing system should be effective in tackling waste.
The components of it are –

1. Unit-based waste Pricing System

According to economists, this is one of the most efficient ways of tackling food waste
and encourage recycling. It uses two important principles, “polluter pays” and
“economic incentives and market systems to be used to reduce pollution that is being
done by the wastes.” Unit-based waste management system is thus a market
mechanism that involves the use of providing incentives to reduce wastes. In this
particular system, polluters pay a fixed amount or maybe no amount (in certain
circumstances), since emitters pay a fixed charge, they can pollute as much as they
want since the amount they are paying is basically disproportionate to the pollution

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 amount being done. The amount that is set is according to the prevailing norms of
pollution being done. They vary considering the sort of industry or business it is, that
is, distinction on the size, amount of factors used, profits, etc.
Though this system is effective in a certain sense, its disadvantage of being misused
cannot be ignored.
2. Waste Charge in Waste Reduction
This is one of the upgrades of the Unit based Waste Pricing System as it focused on
the need for a more holistic view to check pollution as it is difficult to check as to how
much waste is being generated or the amount of pollution being done. So a system is
determined which focused on things such as pollution charges needed to be set up so
that a proportionate system can be made.
3. Individual incentive and Waste Reduction
One of the main focus of the country is to focus more on individual incentives without
charging any fee from the citizens. It should be the duty of the government to
incentivize an individual if one does some efforts in minimizing the wastage of food.
Several things can be done in this regard, economists such as Slavic and Pavel
focused on the need for awareness campaigns to spread the word for economic and
individual incentives. Some of them suggested the need for the “fairness policy” for
the management of wastes. According to them, the policy of fairness includes “the
equity of costs” and “the fact that everyone pays equally for every unit of waste.” It is
assumed by economists that an individual can trust or believe the fairness and
accuracy of the performance measure and that their performance is a direct measure
of the bonus that is given to an individual.

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THE CASE OF TEMPLES

Temple in Hindu tradition is a sacred place where people go to achieve mental satisfaction
and peace. Several rituals are performed in this tradition to please the gods and food and
flower are one of the main things. Since the advent of food as a tradition and since everyone
is aware of the fact that God is not going to eat it, the surety of food being wasted cannot be
ignored and this is indeed the case. According to statistics, 50 liters of milk are waste every
day in the holy rituals performed in the country. This is indeed true with other religions as
well were loads of foods, flowers, fruits, and milch products.

THE CASE STUDY OF “HELP US GREEN”

The case study of a Kanpur based Non-Profit Organisation that gives downtrodden and
marginalized women chance to earn their living after helping them giving employment in
terms of collecting temple ceremonial flowers and other wastes they are tossed into the
Ganges and converting them into a sustainable incense, and thus they received a United
Nations (UN) Climate Action Award.

Help Us Green was the world’s first profitable enterprise to come up with a solution to solve
the problem of the waste that is generated from the temples, that is, flower cycling. Women
working with this organization collect the waste from the flowers, that is, floral waste daily
from different temples of Kanpur. The waste that is generated is used in producing organic
fertilizers, natural incense, and biodegradable packaging material and is thus able to generate
profit from this exercise.

As of now, over eleven thousand metric tonnes of waste generated by the temple have been
flower cycled and around 110 metric tonnes of the chemical pesticides that enter the rivers,
ponds, or lakes through the temples.

This move has eventually affected the income of over seventy families of manual scavengers.
The income of some of those has even increased by six times. A total of 365 families are
living a happy life after being associated with the organizers and thus are having a better
living standard.

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The organization now plans on having an increased area coverage by expanding to
neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and also several other parts of the country and
aims at collecting over 50 tonnes of wastes from different religious places and providing
livelihood to around 5100 women.xi

But this is not really the solution. India needs more Help Us Greens to improve the waste
situation in the country. Over 20,000 manual scavengers have been identified in India with
Uttar Pradesh being the home to over 6000 of those. Manual scavengers are understood to be
one of those classes of people who don’t have two days of meal to feed their families.
Providing them jobs in any better source and help them contribute to society more holistically
would help them.

And this is not enough to clean the waste that would eventually be flown away in the rivers of
the country and act as an agent causing pollution.

CONCLUSION

Through the research paper, it can thus be said that food waste from the hotel industry,
restaurants, houses, temples, and other places is a big challenge. But this does not mean that it
cannot be corrected. Most of the waste is compostable. The present study was an attempt to
show how efficient and effective management of waste not only helps in taking people out of
poverty and prevention of pollution but also strengthens the economy. Thus by the use of
several techniques in economic sense and other methods can help to improve the conditions.
Thus, the hypothesis stands true.

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REFERENCES

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i
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ii
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Oct. 2019]
iii
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iv
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v
Bartone, C. 2000. Strategies for Improving Municipal Solid Waste Management: decades of a
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vi
National Restaurant Association. (2000). 2000 Restaurant Industry Pocket
vii
Witzel, A. (2015). Consumers and food waste – a review of research approaches and findings on
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viii
Curry, R. 2012. The Composition of Waste Disposed of by the UK Hospitality Industry (No.
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x
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Business-standard.com. (2019). Recycling temple waste to spread fragrance gets UN award.
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