Heat Irradiating Food Logistics Cars, All About Preventing Food Waste

Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The National Food Agency (Bapanas) or the National Food Agency (NFA) continues to intensify the role of Food Logistics Cars in order to reduce the number of food waste or food waste in Indonesia.

This car will absorb food that has the potential to become food waste as well as channel it to those in need.

Head of Bapanas Arief Prasetyo Adi said this effort was made to reduce the amount of food that was not consumed and had the potential to become garbage.

Currently, said Arief, Badanas already has three units of Food Logistics and a Food Truck unit.

"The operation of these facilities is carried out by cooperating with food waste activist institutions in the country, namely the Foodbank of Indonesia (FOI) and associations and foundations," he said in a statement, quoted Wednesday, January 11.

Arief said, on Tuesday, January 10 yesterday, the Food Logistics Car distributed donations to five Swadaya PAUDs in the Jakarta area, in Pisangan, Palmeriam, Jatinegara, Duren Sawit, and Ciracas sub-districts. The donation is in the form of milk, biscuits,tenders, soy sauce, and egg noodles.

Arief said, today, January 11, the Food Logistics Car is scheduled to distribute donations to Pakuhaji Tangerang.

Then on Thursday, January 12, it will be distributed to two other locations in Jakarta, and on Friday, January 13, it will distribute food donations to Sawangan Depok and Ciawi Bogor.

The food distribution activity through the Food Logistics Mobil fleet will be carried out continuously and continuously. From a number of these distributions, the amount of food that was saved and distributed was around 2,352 tons," said Arief.

Arief said the initiation of the Food and Food Truck Logistics Car was a form of the follow-up to the cooperation commitment to the 'Food Waste Prevention Movement in the context of Food Vigilance and Nutrition' agreed by NFA along with 9 associations and food waste prevention agencies.

"The presence of this means of Food and Food Truck Logistics Car is a very good step in efforts to reduce food waste in Indonesia," he explained.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of FOI M. Hendro Utomo said that the government's presence through NFA in this food waste reduction activity fostered new hopes and optimism, especially in saving children from food insecurity and malnutrition.

According to Hendro, there are still many children, especially Balita, who need additional food intake to increase their nutrition in order to have good growth and development.

Based on FOI research in 14 cities/districts, 27 percent of Balita children suffer from hunger, be it hidden hunger or actual hunger. Of the 27 percent, 20 percent of them are hidden hungry because they are only given modest snacks.

"With the state present in an effort to reduce food waste to suppress food and nutrition insecurity, Indonesia in the future is expected to really benefit from this demographic bonus, because our children can grow well," he said.

Based on data, globally, around 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted annually. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) noted that Indonesia is the second largest food waste contributor in the world under Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, according to a Bappenas study, the Food Loss and Waste (FLW) in Indonesia in 2000-2019 ranged from 23-48 million tons per year, equivalent to 115184 kg per capita per year, meaning that each individual accounts for more than 1 quintal of food waste per year.

This has an impact on economic losses of approximately Rp. 213 to Rp. 551 trillion per year.

The FLW potential can be channeled to feed 61-125 million people or 29-47 percent of Indonesia's population.