The reason why our food supply chain is flawed and these champions efforts to stop the waste in Singapore

MUMBAI and JAKARTA: Singapore had a taste of it during the “circuit breaker” — when egg distributors were throwing away eggs amid an oversupply, with imports up while demand fell. One merchant discarded as many as 250,000 eggs after they went bad in storage. Worldwide, many more eggs were smashed, vegetables and fruits were destroyed and milk dumped. It is one thing, however, to have it happen in a place like Singapore, ranked number one in the Global Food Security Index; it is another to dump food in countries struggling to combat hunger, malnutrition and poverty. But the latter happens every day because of flaws in the global food supply chain, even before COVID-19. The wrong destination for food: A landfill. In Asia, up to 40 per cent of food is lost after harvesting, during handling and storage — never making it to the shops at all. That is what is happening in India, home to a third of the world’s malnourished children. Indian authorities have estimated that close to 60 ...