Recently I alongwith 4 more students from our school DPS-Sharjah concluded our survey on "Food Waste".

We used the mailing method to do our survey . We sent questionnaire to respondents by facebook and google drive. Then we analysed the replies by graphical analysis.

I would like to share with you few key findings and abstracts of our survey.

We have noticed that even though Food Waste is a major environmental issue in the UAE, there is still scope of improvement.

 

i) 50% of the respondents have said that they have heard about consumer rights, but are not sure what it is about.

 

ii) 83% of the respondents store their unfinished food products in their freezer/refrigerator.

 

iii) 20% of the respondents chose Promotion B just because of the label that something was "Free".

 

iv) 40% of the respondents are strongly influenced by the product's "Looks".

 

v) 13% of the respondents do not make a shopping list before going for shopping.

 

These Key results show us that majority of Food Waste is due to people not being aware.

Some recommendations as to how this issue can be handled are,

 

i) Making people aware of their consumer rights that are ensured by the government.

 

ii) Encouraging people to actually see what are their needs and only buy what they need. Promotional offers can sway people and tempt them to buy much more than what they need hence increasing food waste.

 

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iii) Being influenced by the looks of a product can make people buy more than what they really need. This is harmful and people must be encouraged to not buy products only for their "Look" and appeal but should also check the quality of the product.

 

iv) Making a shopping list before going for shopping is of utmost importance in order to give the consumer a rough guideline as to what he really needs.

 

v) Consumers must be urged to check for the manufacturing and expiry date of any product before purchasing it in order to increase its shelf life thereby reducing wastage.

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Hence, increasing awareness amongst citizens and by encouraging them to change their lifestyle can help them reduce Food Waste to a major extent. Also, people need to understand that Looks are not the only thing that define a product and should rely upon more promising factors such as Quality, Packaging, etc.

There are many people in this world who are under chronic poverty,and also many people who even don't get nutritious food to eat. Before dumping the food into waste-bin, always remember those people who live in extreme hunger and poverty. Therefore, if we as individuals take necessary steps to prevent food wastage, there will a change in global scenario.

"THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY!"

I , on my part , have been spreading awareness about bad impacts and consequences of food wastage by writing through media like I wrote a community report to UAE's leading newspaper "Gulf News" when I noticed food thrown in middle of the road. This was published and I have attached the picture here .

Also I wrote to the leading teens magazine "The Young Vision" an article on "Food wastage is a crime" highlighting the huge wastage of food during social gatherings , parties etc.

Let's all gear up and start spreading the word around cautioning people against food wastage . Let's be the change to bring the change.

FOOD WASTAGE IS A CRIME.

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