Food waste affects us all as a community and as a nation.

“Those with lower incomes tend to go for cheaper and less nutritional food due to their limited financial resources, which has been made worse by the rising cost of living over the past few years.
29.7% of children within daycare age (zero to four years old) had or are currently suffering from stunted growth, according to ministry's data.”

More and more studies and news reported heart disease is on the rise amongst young people due to poor diet, causing health difficulties especially children's cognitive, impacting growth development, immune system, diabetics and malnutrition and more which leads to financial/medical/ burden and income generation, worsening the poverty cycle in future generations.

“Children suffering from stunted growth are more at risk of developing non-communicable diseases like obesity which will affect their productivity capability as they reach adulthood that will in turn hurt the future productivity of the country.” -Ministry of Health Malaysia.

Read all the way down.

“Mounting evidence from multiple scientific studies shows that many fruits, vegetables, and grains grown today carry less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than those that were grown decades ago. This is an especially salient issue if more people switch to primarily plant-based diets, as experts are increasingly recommending for public health and for protecting the planet.”

Businesses cant be blamed as have too sustain to pay for rising cost, salary increment, bonuses, etc.
Even our local restaurants meals serving lesser and lesser nutritious ingredients, excessive flour etc.

What is food(to you)?

Everyone sees food differently as everyone came from different background, upbringing, classes, culture, location and local market(rural/urban), and etc.
Photos shown for illustration purposes only.

Preventable Waste

Due to invisible hand, free market, chronology and scale of wastages, we only truly prevent waste when we improved the individuals diet; from eating unhealthy diet to a healthy one.

Surplus is food that failed to reach its primary consumer due to various reasons i.e; overstocking, mishandling, appearance, near expiry, rejects, and etc.

Everyday, the market will over produce and discard surplus, leading not only to nutritious food loss, but also loss in profit.

Not to mention waste dumped into landfills, causing environmental harm and cost to the nation.

It’s impossible to match market supply and demand, market is inefficient but not necessary broken… explained further below.
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And yes, our government have been actively combating this issues with holistic measures through…

• community assistance, empowerment and awareness programmes

• food subsidy and awareness programmes in public schools and media

• price monitoring and crackdown

• supporting local agriculture, fair market, etc.

• empowering local social enterprises like Pasar Grub

• and more…

• Pasar Grub original thoughts on progressive policies, regulations or market solutions for food surplus, waste, security, etc?

  Thoughts below are can be applied in general industry, not only food. And…. context is important.

  The Dunning-Kruger effect: We grow a country with that we have, not what we want

• Policies and regulations can be tricky to implement, translate, and costly without reflecting on unique local needs, ecosystem and culture.

  Food policies of western countries might not work in Malaysia. It’s important to note Malaysia is import dependant country not only in supplies but in labour too.

• Our government does consult with think tanks, market experts and researchers… but new policies to disrupt status quo is risky.

  • Government responsible for nation’s stability via confidence, growth, and production(even if it means over production.)

    ….shortages (and inflation) are usually where the alarm bells goes off.

  • Businesses thrives on lesser regulations and requirements; unnecessary measures might cause more harm than good, business lowering cost by lay-off. Businesses are logically have self interest to reduce wastage, and channel supplies where the demand is high.

    Since pre-industrial revolution, our society evolved onto consumerism, industrialisation and capital.

  • Policies can be redundant or irrelevant during crisis period especially when supply and demand cycle are spiralling down, leading to intervention.

  • Policies and regulations can be misinterpreted and confusing from top line to bottom line enforcement.

  • Food security is indeed a threat to nation’s wellbeing, however, because the market is irrational not even the best mathematician can solve the issue.

  • Local and small policies and other market solutions best to suits only to the specific community needs; state, targeted location, etc.

    • Supplier’s challenges: Local supplies, local production, cost, profitability, risk, labour, markets, competition, logistics, incentives, demand variables, local regulations, climate change, technology, support, externalities & more.

      • Example 1: “It takes entire village to raise a child.” This phrase also applies to any local entrepreneur growing local food. Such as skilled local farmers who happen to have a suitable fertile land and accessible roads, they also need other entrepreneurs supporting their entire supply chain as well their sells, like water, fertiliser, pesticides, packing, logistics and etc. Then to sell it at the market with highest profit margin.

      • Example 2: It is quite common for cash businesses facing unethical behaviour from their own employee such as stolen cash or items, and going digital e-wallet itself will ironically alienate the targeted customer base, these reality and concerns drain away owners energy to engage in more impact activities.

    • Demand Behaviour : Accessibility, awareness, affordability, availability, culture, consistency, psychological, and others.

      • Example 1: Consumer’s psychologically shop with their eyes, factors like packaging and attractive ‘illusion of abundance’ making suppliers to ‘pile it high watch it fly’. leading to food waste and artificially make it costly for everyone.

      • Example 2: Consumer’s dont often know what they want; demanding for less harmful plastic packaging, however supplier side it is for hygiene purposes as its cheaper than audits. If consumer encounter pest, ‘boycott!’

    • Other thoughts & considerations:

      • Views on more data collection: Cons about data is that to get a good output, it required a good input and constantly being updated to have its intended effect. Lower executives data collectors must also be qualified as well as incentivised for accurate input. And most importantly data must be freed from any unbiasedness and manipulation and other agendas. Its important to note that data is cheap to start, but expensive to maintain(update).

        Market are shown to be obsessed with chasing optics and gimmicks like tech, AI and data, smart solutions, but often ended up in wasting investment and brain drain if the initiative cant reach maturity level or simply hit reality.

      • Food banks: There is significant debate about the relevance of food banks during non-crisis periods, the sustainability of Malaysia as a welfare state, and the inventory management training of members in smaller organizations. In our opinion, food banks remain essential, particularly for addressing homelessness, also there is no established, viable ecosystem to redirect surplus items at the country level… yet.

        Furthermore, free riders are never encouraged in a capitalist world we live in. To truly address the issue at its core, the initiative must be self-sustainable through financial means and incentives. This requires establishing a company dedicated to creating a circular economy and ecosystem where both consumer and producer will profit.

      • Buy local vs imports: a popular phrase, but it’s more complicated in practice. Malaysia is an import dependent nation and Imports produce can be found cheaper, bigger and consistent. And for Pasar Grub, it’s easier to sell.

      • Organic vs non-organic: Another widely debated topic that can be long. In summary, Pasar Grub have no objections and opinions on the matter as both are proven essential and sustainable for humanity.

Food Recovery Hierarchy