FOLSUN's Webinar to Mark International Awareness Day on Food Loss and Waste: Insights and Actions for a Sustainable Future

 

The Food Literacy and Sustainable Nutrition (FOLSUN) Initiative of the Faculty of Agriculture,
organized a webinar titled: Insights and Actions for a Sustainable Future on September 29,
2025, from 13:00 to 15:30 Mauritius time (UTC+4) to mark the International Day of
Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. The event brought together both international and
national experts to discuss critical issues related to food loss and waste. The webinar served as
an important platform for fostering collaboration and raising awareness on this vital global and
local challenge. Resource persons shared valuable insights, explored innovative solutions, and
identified actionable strategies to promote sustainability. The webinar was convened and moderated by Assoc Prof. D.Goburdhun. This post gives the key insights from these presentations to show how we can move towards a sustainable food future.

 

 

Topics	Speaker and Affiliation
Introductory Remarks	Associate Professor Dayawatee Goburdhun, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius
1.0 Tackling food loss and waste on global level - insights from an international collaboration network	Dr. Felicitas Schneider, Coordinator of the Collaboration Initiative Food Loss and Waste, Thünen Institute of Market Analysis, Germany
2.0 Policy Framework on Food Loss and Food Waste	Dr. Nitin K Chikhuri (Co-Chair, Agri-Food Platform), Chief Agricultural Policy and Programme Development Officer, Ministry of Agro-Industry, Food Security, Blue Economy & Fisheries
3.0 Overview of the Food Pact Network	Ms. Talya Shalev, International Partnerships Manager at WRAP – Africa & EU
4.0 The splitting of soap stock – MOROIL’s Endeavour towards Rendering and Food Waste Reduction	Mr. Ravish Musruck, Production Manager, Mauritius Oil Refineries Ltd
5.0 Antiwaste cooking Lifestyle	Mrs. Laura Sangeeleemootoo, Passionate Chef & Cooking Influencer, Administrative Secretary, Southern Marine & Co. Ltd
6.0 FoodWise, breaking the food waste cycle	Ms. Lotilde Charpy, General Manager, FoodWise Ltd
7.0 Les légumes moches: pourquoi certains seraient mieux que les légumes beaux? (The ugly vegetables: why some are better than the beautiful vegetables?)	Mrs. Jacqueline Sauzier, General Secretary, Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture

Summary of the Presentations

1.0 The Global Food Waste Paradox: Scale, Cost, and The Household Imperative

The loss and waste of nearly a third of all food produced annually for human consumption constitutes a trillion-dollar global crisis with severe, wide-ranging consequences that span environmental, economic, and ethical domains.

Critical Facts and Costs

• Environmental Burden: The wasted food is responsible for an astonishing 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a carbon footprint that is six times larger than the entire global aviation industry.

• Economic Drain: The sheer inefficiency of the system results in a direct monetary loss of approximately $940 billion annually, representing vast amounts of squandered energy, labour, and capital.

• Moral Failure: This massive scale of waste exists in direct contradiction to the fact that 343 million people are simultaneously facing acute levels of food insecurity, underscoring a critical ethical and systemic breakdown.

Source of the Problem and Call to Action

• Primary Source: While waste occurs throughout the supply chain, the most significant point of loss is consumer behaviour, with households contributing of all food waste, making it the single largest source.

• Systemic Obstacle: A key difficulty in tackling this issue is the widespread lack of comprehensive data and monitoring systems in many nations, including Germany, hindering the accurate identification and targeting of "hotspots."

  Individual Leverage: The high percentage of waste from homes places immense power in the hands of consumers. A practical first step to reduce this waste is to commit to meal planning based on current refrigerator inventory, ensuring perishables are used before new groceries are purchased.

2.0 National Circular Economy Road Map for Agri-Food

Faced with the ethical, economic ($940 billion global loss), and environmental crisis of Food Loss and Waste (FLW), the government of Mauritius approved a 10-year National Circular Economy Road Map in 2023 to create a more sustainable agri-food system.

The strategy is built on three core objectives:

• Prioritize local food production that regenerates natural ecosystems.
• Systematically eliminate FLW across the entire value chain.
• Maximize resource use by converting agricultural by-products into valuable inputs like compost.

To implement this, a multi-stakeholder Agri-Food Platform was established, prioritizing two immediate actions:

• Developing a foundational National Strategy and Action Plan on FLW, beginning with a crucial baseline study to close local data gaps.
• Implementing a Voluntary Agreement to secure cooperative waste reduction targets with the private sector.

The success of the Road Map hinges on ensuring inter-ministerial coordination and strategically aligning funding through conditional and unconditional targets to meet the global goal of a FLW reduction by 2030.

3.0 WRAP and the Food Pact Network

The Food Pact Network, convened by the global environmental NGO RAP, is a critical, systemic solution that shifts the focus of the food waste fight beyond the individual kitchen.

Core Strategy: Pre-Competitive Alliances

• Voluntary Agreements: The network uses a model of "voluntary agreements" to create industry-led accountability, bypassing legislative delays.

• Competitor Collaboration: This framework unites fierce business rivals—from farms to retailers—in a "pre-competitive" space to collaborate on waste reduction strategies.

• Proven Blueprint: The structure is adapted from the successful Plastic Pact Network model, proving its ability to scale solutions for global material crises.

Implementation and Focus

• Data-Driven Approach: A core challenge is the need for standardized measurement and data collection; the network champions shared tools (like the UK's "Food Production Roadmap") to accurately identify and track waste.

• Targeting Hotspots: Data enables a strategic focus on high-impact sectors, or "hotspots," where waste has the highest environmental toll, specifically:

• Dairy, Meat, and Poultry: Due to their association with particularly high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

• Hospitality and Tourism: Targeting waste in hotels, restaurants, and food service businesses.

Global Action: The initiative is an active, funded global community, sharing practical knowledge across all continents and aiming to publish its first Impact Report for the COP 30 climate conference.

4.0 Moroil Oil Refining 

• Core Operation: Moroil is an oil refining plant operating in Mauritius since 1968, focusing on import substitution and national food security.
• Refining Process: They primarily use an alkali refining process to produce their final oil product.
• Sustainability Innovation: The company is committed to reducing waste and promoting sustainability.
• Byproduct Conversion: Moro pioneered an innovative process to convert their main by-product, soap stock, into a valuable product called acid oil.
• Value and Use: The resulting acid oil has a high energy value and is sold as a resource for industries such as livestock feed and cosmetology, effectively generating wealth from waste.
• Overall Impact: The initiative is praised as a successful example of environmental problem-solving and increasing efficiency through process optimization.

5.0 A Chef's 5 Rules for a Zero-Waste Kitchen :A chef's perspective transforms kitchen waste into an opportunity for creativity, nutrition, and sustainability, guided by five surprising rules:

• Redefine "Perfect" Produce: Stop striving for flawless fruits and vegetables; by embracing bruised or misshapen produce, consumers prevent significant waste at the farm and supply chain level, as these items are just as delicious and nutritious.
• Harness Hidden Nutrients: Go beyond the peeler and leave the skins on produce whenever possible. This simple act reduces kitchen waste while boosting nutrient intake, as research shows skins often contain the highest concentration of vitamins and minerals.
• Treat Stale Bread as a Delicacy: Never throw out old bread. Instead, creatively transform stale loaves into entirely new dishes like fritters, bread pudding, or croutons, turning a highly wasted item into a versatile, new ingredient.
• Adopt the Leftover Mindset: View leftovers not as food to be reheated, but as "new ingredients" for future meals. For example, roasted chicken becomes chicken salad, while old vegetables become the base for flavourful soups, embodying a fundamental shift in food perception.
• Embrace the Circular Kitchen: Run your kitchen using the principles of a circular economy—reuse, recycle, and recover—to maximize efficiency, save resources, and prevent food from creating potent methane gas in landfills.

Action: You could save all your vegetable trimmings (onion skins, carrot ends, herb stems) this week and slow-simmer them to create a flavourful, custom zero-waste vegetable stock.

 

6.0 Fighting Food Waste- The FoodWise Model in Mauritius

• Localized Crisis: The magnitude of the problem is starkly illustrated in Mauritius, where 279 kilograms of perfectly edible food are thrown away every minute, accounting for a significant portion (27%) of landfill volume.

• Aesthetic Discrimination: An estimated 45% of all wasted fruits and vegetables are discarded due to superficial imperfections (bruises, misshapen forms) before they ever reach the consumer, driven by a market demand for cosmetic "perfection."

• Label Confusion: Massive household waste is caused by confusing "Best Before" dates (a measure of peak quality) with strict "Expiration Dates" (a measure of safety), leading consumers to discard foods like dry goods, yogurt, and eggs that are still perfectly safe and edible.

• Profound Ethical Failure: This immense waste exists as a moral paradox alongside acute food insecurity, highlighted by local statistics showing high rates of underweight children and poverty, spurring organizations to act.

• Food Wise Model: Organizations like Food Wise provide a powerful solution by implementing a sophisticated, daily operation to rescue surplus, edible food from a network of over 250 commercial donors (including hotels and supermarkets).

• Tangible Results: This efficient redistribution model, which uses refrigerated transport to match specific donations to the needs of over 200 partner NGOs, has successfully saved over 1.7 million kilograms of food, translating to over 7 million meals and $239 million in value provided to the community since 2018.

   7.0 The Case for Embracing "Ugly" Produce

  The collective quest for cosmetically perfect vegetables in the supermarket aisle fuels a massive, unsustainable crisis. Consumers are conditioned to seek flawless specimens, but this aesthetic demand ripples backward through the supply chain, creating staggering waste and inefficiency.

  The Waste Driven by Appearance

  • Systemic Discard: A colossal third of all vegetables produced are wasted across the supply chain. Over 10% is discarded directly in the field because the produce is "too small, too large, not straight, crooked," or has minor cosmetic flaws that render it visually unappealing to retailers and consumers.

  • Environmental and Economic Cost: Throwing away this edible food also wastes the high volume of land, water, energy, and labor used for its cultivation. This environmental strain creates an economic paradox: farmers must charge more for the remaining "perfect" produce to recover their costs, which ultimately drives up prices for consumers.

  Why Imperfection is Better

  • Nutrition is Unaffected: "Ugly" vegetables are equally nutritious, containing the same vitamins and minerals as their perfect counterparts, as they grow in the same conditions.

  • The Health Hypothesis: Some experts suggest that minor blemishes, such as insect bites, may indicate less intensive use of chemical treatments and pesticides, potentially making the imperfect vegetable a healthier, more naturally grown choice.

  • Consumer Power for Change: The standards for produce are set by consumer preference. By actively choosing and accepting visually imperfect produce, shoppers exert powerful pressure on the supply chain. A simple action is to request that local supermarkets establish a dedicated "ugly vegetables" section to normalize imperfection and vote for a more sensible, less wasteful food system.