The amount of food waste generated in Ramadan is significantly higher than other months. Eating simple, small meals is key to a healthy Ramadan fast - and it can help the environment by minimizing waste.

We must try to be mindful by paying attention, being conscious of not only what we’re putting into our bodies in Ramadan, but also what we don’t need in the first place. Let’s commit to minimizing waste, recycling food and food scraps and learning to live more with less. 

Food wastage is a wastage of energy and resources used in its production. It harms the environment. It deprives others of the food- the food you waste is a food stolen from a hungry stomach. It is a social crime.

Let’s try to follow a few tips to avoid food waste in Ramadan:

1.     Plan meals ahead – A simple way is to buy only the food needed. To do so, plan your meals well ahead and make a shopping list to avoid buying unnecessary items and excessive buys and not becoming a victim to the marketing strategies that lead us to buy more food than our requirement.

2.     Cook the required quantity – Prepare and cook food as per the needs of your family. When people eat at hotels, they tend to overeat than what is actually needed.

3.     Cook and adopt to eat vegetarian diet – People tend to eat meat products which increases by 50% of the normal demand during Ramadan. This can be greatly reduced if we enjoy meat in moderation and consider to include plant based proteins such as grains, legumes and seeds. This will help us to have a balanced diet and keep us healthy and also good for our environment and planet, as pollution due to waste by-products and livestock can be greatly reduced.

4.     Share your meals – Food wastage can be greatly minimized by sharing them with your friends, neighbors’ and community. We can also be more supportive and creative by transforming them into suhour.

5.     Donate to Sharing fridges and local food bank – More than 100 food bank fridges are set up in public places, residential areas and mosques, which gives us an opportunity to share our unused food and prevent the wastage.

6.     Compost your leftovers – Food wastage can be greatly reduced by the above tips and instead of throwing them in the bin, we can try to compost food scraps which will reduce the negative impacts of landfills while also recycling nutrients. These can be used as natural fertilizer to help grow plants in our garden.

     Image source: http://www.adwonline.ae/uae-makes-moves-first-zero-waste-society-region/

      https://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-for-good/teach-them-young-our-kids-shouldnt-be-food-wasters

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