Abu Dhabi reduces food waste by setting new benchmarks

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Food Fair by Saeed Al Bahri Al Ameri, Director General of ADAFSA, and Ahmed Al Shamsi, Chief Executive Officer of the Emirates Foundation, which manages the Ne’ma initiative.

Through a collaborative approach, ADAFSA will work with Ne’ma to establish a food loss and waste baseline for Abu Dhabi and set a quantitative baseline. In particular, the project required a detailed overview of food loss and waste, including volume and value across the food value chain. It also includes the main sectors that measure domestic food production, imports, food storage and logistics, food retailing, hotels and households.

Under the agreement, surveys and interviews will be conducted with the food waste industry to gain an accurate picture of food loss and waste levels at key points in the supply chain, including the main causes of waste. The project will also identify areas for improvement and conduct surveys and interviews to address household food waste.

The objective is to develop a granular view of what and where losses and waste are occurring across the value chain, what the root causes are and understand behavioral differences between different population groups in Abu Dhabi so that improvements can be defined immediately and in the long term .The study will follow international standards and methodologies for food loss and waste measurement

“We are delighted to be working with the Ne’ma initiative and we thank them for their efforts to reduce food loss and waste in the country. We work together to achieve the goals of the agreement, starting with the authority’s mission to control and inspect agricultural production inputs As well as food and agricultural materials imported or exported or produced in the country and circulated in the emirate to ensure the community has access to safe and healthy food,” said Dr Maryam Al Suwaidi, ADAFSA Deputy Director General for Operations.

“The agreement is in line with the authority’s recently launched mission, which articulates the importance of launching a national program aimed at reducing food loss and waste at the Emirate level of Abu Dhabi. The program is in partnership with the Ne’ma initiative to provide a comprehensive assessment of the current situation , to develop an index to measure food loss and waste on a regular basis, and to establish legislation and the legal framework to support all initiatives related to the programme. A shared vision for food security,” she added.

“With this agreement we strive to develop a baseline for food loss and waste in Abu Dhabi, identify food loss and waste hotspots, reveal the extent of the challenge, and enable us to make informed and data-driven decisions and interventions and national reduction programmes, to achieve Ne’ma’s strategic goals,” said Khuloud Al Nuwais, Chief Sustainability Officer of the Emirates Foundation and Secretary-General of the Ne’ma Council.

“This collaboration helps address the urgent need to collect raw data to obtain reliable quantitative estimates that can be used as indicators for halving food waste by 2030,” she added.

Ne’ma aims to create a national umbrella and collaborative approach with government entities and private sector agencies across the food value chain including farms, distributors, retailers, hospitality, food services and community members. This collaborative approach aims to develop the right solutions to reduce food loss and waste during production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal.