Guest Speakers:
IRAS (Indian restaurant association of Singapore ) Secretary: Mr. S Mahenthiran.
Food waste Segregation Regulation Branch (NEA ) Ms. Queenie Wong
Food from the Heart Senior manager Ms. Jesvinder Kaur
Food Bank Operations Manager Mr. Jameson Chow
The campaign was organised by Lisha Women’s wing.
Lisha Women’s Wing had an initiative to do the first event of the year 2021 to make the environment to go green and reduce food wastage.
The campaign aims to help businesses with ideas on how to reduce and prevent food waste. LISHA is aware of the struggle of merchants and restaurants and are trying to find ways in which merchants can work together said Mrs. Joyce kingly, Founder and Chairperson of Lisha Women’s wing.
Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the environment, Dr Amy Khor, Guest of Honor, delivered her speech in line with the current efforts by Little India shopkeeper to cut food waste. With more than 80 food-related establishments in Little India today, the potential for businesses to reduce food waste is immense. The best way to reduce food waste is to avoid wasting food at the outset. There are about 70 restaurants and 200 grocery stores in little India at an introductory webinar to launch the company commended alerts by same shopkeepers to cut food waste.
For almost expired food ,she noted that many stores sell them at discounted price or give away for free. She told that some of the shops are working with SG FOOD RESCUE, they collect unsold food and and redistributes to the community.
Mr. S. Mahenthiran honorary secretary of the Indian Restaurants Association (Singapore),spoke on how to cut food waste. Little India Goes Green with the new fight against food wastage that most Indian restaurants would display multiple trays of cooked food behind the counter. Some of that food would not be sold at the end of the day. He also reminded merchants and restaurants not to be swayed by deals and discounts for bulk orders from suppliers, as some items may not be needed.
In 2019, 744.000 tonnes of food waste was generated in Singapore, by making up about 10 percent of the total waste generated in the country. Only one-fifth of that food waste was recycled ,and the rest was thrown away .
He also mentioned that,
“COOK WHAT IS NEEDED”
Not everything on the menu has to be prepared in advance. We can have a chiller next to the display counter to keep marinated dishes. And upon order, you can cook the dishes. This way, you can still keep the uncooked food in the chiller for use the next day. He has given a clear evidences from his power point presentations .
National Environmental Agency, Food Bank SG and Food from the Heart also mentioned in their speeches to work closer to the restaurants and grocery shops to go green by placing more recycled bins at little India .
