Hundreds Savour Cuisine Using Food Destined for Waste
Bangkok, 3 December 2015 – Prominent chefs from Thailand and Australia used ingredients that are usually discarded to dish up meals for people in Bangkok today to promote awareness on food waste.
The ‘Think.Eat.Save’ event is organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and OzHarvest in support of the UN Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) to halve global food waste along production and supply chains by 2030.
Modelled on OzHarvest’s annual Think.Eat.Save events, which feed thousands of people across Australia, the Bangkok event had celebrity chefs like Duangporn ‘Bo’ Songvisava, Dylan ‘Lan’ Jones, Chris Miller and Australian OzHarvest ‘Chef for a Cause’, Travis Harvey, who in May this year opened Australia’s first-ever food waste pop-up café, design a lunch menu using surplus produce saved from landfill or sourced from local farmers and suppliers.
The event is part of the Think.Eat.Save campaign which was launched by the UNEP, the Food and Agricultural Organization and partners in 2013 to change the culture of food waste which results in 1.3 billion tonnes of food wasted globally each year, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The total carbon footprint of food produced but not eaten is 3.3 Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent.
“UNEP is tackling food waste head-on with its Think.Eat.Save methodology for waste prevention at city, country and company-level. We are delighted to be working with OzHarvest to underline the importance of reducing food loss and waste in fighting both hunger and the impacts of climate change,” said Kaveh Zahedi, UNEP Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific.
An estimated 20 to 40 per cent of food lost or wasted along the supply chain in Asia Pacific. Food is lost in transit between rural production areas and urban consumers because of poor quality roads, hot and humid weather conditions, and poor packaging.
“At Bo.lan our philosophy is to achieve zero-waste and zero-carbon footprint. It is international movements like this that will get the mass public to think more about their food choices, and as a result change their behaviour in a more positive way,” said Chef Dylan Jones, Bo Lan Restaurant.
Founder and CEO of OzHarvest, Ronni Kahn warns that if governments, business and individuals do not act now, our food systems will be in danger. “We know that by 2050, the global population will exceed nine billion people. For future generations, we need to make positive and conscious food choices in order to provide food security for all,” Kahn said.
“Most importantly, we need to share knowledge so that together – countries can unite and find a solution to food loss and waste, and to tackle climate change not as individual nations, but as a global community,” she added.
For information and interviews please contact:
Satwant Kaur, Regional Information Officer, UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific T: +668 1700 1376 E: satwant.kaur@unep.org
Mei Ling Park, Communications Consultant UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific T: +66 2288-1275 E: park21@un.org
OzHarvest National Communications and Marketing Manager
Louise Tran E: louise.tran@ozharvest.org M: +61 466 620 744 Skype: louise.tl
