Abu Dhabi urges households and businesses to cut food waste with simple daily changes

The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) is stepping up its appeals to households, retailers and producers to curb food loss and waste, arguing that small shifts in shopping, storage and portioning can make a big difference for the emirate’s food security and the planet.

Speaking in a remote awareness session aimed at food‑chain workers and the wider community, the authority urged people to “ditch negative eating habits, start moderating the quantities of food prepared, and buy food only as needed,” and defined food waste as “food that is lost, squandered, or disposed of despite often being fit for human consumption.” The authority highlighted the harvest‑to‑retail phase as the stage where losses are greatest in the local supply chain, and laid out practical steps for consumers — plan shopping, buy only what is needed, and store food correctly.

Those recommendations sit alongside widely reported global analyses showing why the problem matters. The Food and Agriculture Organization explains the technical distinction between food loss — which mainly occurs between harvest and retail — and food waste at retail and consumption stages, and puts roughly 14% of global food lost before it reaches shops, with a further c.17% wasted at retail and by consumers. United Nations bodies and environmental agencies have underscored the climate and economic stakes: recent UNEP and FAO work shows food waste carries a huge carbon and resource footprint, and the UNFCCC has stressed that food loss and waste are responsible for around 8–10% of annual greenhouse‑gas emissions and cost roughly US$1 trillion a year.

The authority echoed many of those global concerns in local terms, noting the human and financial tolls frequently cited in international reports: nearly one billion people remain hungry worldwide, the annual global cost of disposing of food waste has been put at about US$410 billion, and the broader price of food wasted annually is estimated at about US$1 trillion. It also warned that rotting food produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and that waste represents a loss of embedded resources such as water, land, energy, labour and capital.

Practical advice and alignment with international guidance
ADAFSA outlined a three‑step consumer checklist — prepare for shopping, shop with a plan, and store food properly — that mirrors guidance published by international and national agencies. The UK Food Standards Agency recommends keeping domestic refrigerators at 5°C or below (and freezers at −18°C) while the US Environmental Protection Agency advises refrigeration at around 4°C; ADAFSA’s own guidance sets the refrigerator below 5°C and recommends freezer temperatures between −15°C and −18°C. The authority also advised common best practices such as using a first‑in, first‑out rotation for pantry items, labeling and freezing surplus, avoiding plate overfilling, and re‑using leftovers.

For businesses and the agricultural sector the authority says it has issued a package of legislation and explanatory guides, including a guidance manual focused on reducing waste in the food‑service sector and good agricultural practice guides designed to cut losses during harvest and transport. ADAFSA described its regulatory approach as risk‑based, relying on scientific evidence to judge product safety — a system it says both protects consumers and helps reduce unnecessary waste.

The authority also pointed to non‑regulatory measures: training for workers in food establishments and the agricultural sector, and public awareness campaigns encouraging consumers to support local producers, plan weekly meals and donate surplus food. During the remote meeting ADAFSA urged those with excess to contact humanitarian and relief agencies such as the Red Crescent for redistribution, and suggested surplus leftovers can be diverted to animal feed or compost where appropriate.

A broader policy challenge
International bodies stress that reducing food loss and waste requires action at every stage of the supply chain. The FAO emphasises capacity development, measurement and technical training for producers and processors; UNEP and UNFCCC call for stronger monitoring and for policies — including those in national climate plans — that aim to halve waste. They point out regional differences: in many developing regions the biggest losses occur during production and processing, while wealthier regions see most waste at retail and consumer levels, so responses must be tailored.

ADAFSA’s campaign echoes those themes: by combining regulation, guidance for businesses, consumer education and technical training for the agricultural sector it hopes to tackle both the early losses ADAFSA identified and the consumer behaviours that drive waste in homes and restaurants.

What this means for consumers
For individuals the message is straightforward and practical — shop with a list, avoid shopping when hungry, check expiry dates carefully, store food at recommended temperatures, rotate stock so items close to expiry are used first, and think creatively about leftovers. These steps, ADAFSA says, conserve scarce resources and strengthen food security while lowering costs for households.

The authority frames the issue as both an environmental and moral imperative: cutting even a quarter of current global waste would, by international estimates, be enough to feed hundreds of millions of people. Whether through better post‑harvest handling, smarter purchasing or stronger food‑recovery schemes, ADAFSA is urging the public and businesses in Abu Dhabi to treat food as a shared resource rather than a disposable commodity. It’s pretty striking when you think about it, isn’t it? Small changes really can add up.

Source: Noah Wire Services