Taiwan produces more than 550000 metric tons of kitchen waste a year. The EPD recruits food shops and specializes in cooking.

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(by upstream and downstream journalist Lin Shijun / tr. by Phil Newell)

According to United Nations statistics, 4.4 billion tons of food is wasted worldwide, while Taiwan recovered more than 550000 metric tons of food waste in 2017. in response to the United Nations sustainable development policy of "responsible production and consumption", and in response to the goal of achieving a 50 per cent reduction in food waste by 2030, the EPA will hold a series of food-sparing education activities from July to World Food Day.

In order to promote the concepts of "reducing waste food, avoiding food waste, using local ingredients, and shortening transportation mileage," Director of Environmental Protection Li Yingyuan demonstrated the use of "special products" to make cuisine on the spot. I hope that the public will start with themselves and change the fate of waste food.

The Director of Environmental Protection demonstrated on the spot the use of "special products" to make cuisine (the right is the chef Jianyuan, the left is Li Yingyuan)

Li Yingyuan: consumers eat the right amount and form the "packing habit"

At the same time, Li Yingyuan also stressed the need to start from the "consumer side", encouraging consumers to be willing to buy "special products" to change the fate of discarded food.

"it's important to eat in moderation!" Li called on people not to overeat, which is more positive for their health. in addition, when people go to restaurants, they can take the initiative to develop a "packing habit" to take home unfinished food and reduce the chance of food being thrown into the dustbin.

In response to consumer-side educational activities, Li said that starting from July, the EPA will hold seminars on food conservation and food farmers to teach the public how to reuse "special products."

To solve the problem of surplus food in the supermarket Li: to change the quantity of stock

In addition to promoting the concept of "cherishing food" from the consumer side, Li Yingyuan said that between March 2017 and April 2018, the reported amount of food waste from Taiwan's supermarkets and mass trafficking industry reached 6630 metric tons, equivalent to more than 500m tons of food waste per month, indicating that the "surplus food problem" is serious.

In response, Li Jianyi sold data to improve the quantity of goods purchased, taking "appropriate quantity" as the principle of operation and management, or supplying immediate food to groups in need.

APEC economies participate in reducing Grain loss Target to reduce Grain loss rate by 10% after two years

The problem of food waste has aroused international concern. Representatives of the public and private sectors of APEC economies gathered in Taipei on the 14th and 15th of this month to discuss how to reduce food losses through high-level dialogue, with the goal of reducing the food loss rate by 10% by 2020.

Huang Jincheng, vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that food losses are not only a waste of agricultural investment, but also reduce producers' profits, but also cause food prices to rise, leading to a food crisis.

Hung Chung-hsiu, director of the International Department of the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan, pointed out that the NTU team put forward the concept of "grain damage reduction toolbox (toolkits)," that is, to examine the problems one by one from the grain supply chain. For example, technology that is not good enough will lead to a waste of land and fertilizer resources at the production end; in addition, postharvest treatment of grain is also very important, requiring good logistics, storage and distribution environment and equipment; and finally, the consumer side should start through education to teach consumers to cherish food.

Hong said that the Academia Sinica and NTU teams responsible for technical research will use this concept and expect to propose specific ways to reduce food damage at the "Food Security week" in Papua New Guinea in August this year.

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