40 Million Tons of Food Wasted in Indonesia Every Year, Here's the Solution

TheIndonesia.id - The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) together with Surplus Indonesia offers a new method to change the behavior of food and beverages consumed in the hotel and restaurant industry. Every year, it is estimated that 23 million to 48 million tons of food in Indonesia is wasted.

This method is contained in the Sustainable Food Tourism Program to reduce the level of food waste and food loss in Indonesia through collaboration with Surplus Indonesia, a digital platform for service providers to buy food that has not been sold before restaurant closing time with a 50 percent discount.

"The public, consumers, or tourists, must change their behavior because we see the hotel and restaurant industry as well as the food and beverage industry as the biggest contributor to food waste and food loss in the world today," said Deputy for Industry and Investment of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Henky Manurung in a statement after the Weekly Brief with Minister Sandi Uno in Jakarta, Tuesday, August 23, 2022.

In addition to Surplus Indonesia, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy is collaborating with The Ascott Limited-Indonesia, Artotel Group, and Swiss-Bellhotel International to reduce food waste in Indonesia. “In the future, there will be a Marriot Group joining the Sustainable Food Tourism Program. We hope that other hotel groups such as Sartika Hotel and others will join Surplus Indonesia," said Manurung.

According to the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) study, food waste in Indonesia from 2000 to 2019 was 23-48 million tons per year or 115-182 kilograms per capita per year. The country also suffers economic losses of up to IDR 551 trillion per year or five percent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and loses energy content equivalent to 125 million Indonesians and additional carbon emissions due to wasted food.

CEO and Founder of Surplus Indonesia Agung Saputra stated that throwing away food causes financial losses and creates the potential for CO2 gas which can increase the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Surplus Indonesia is expected to be a solution from upstream so that food that is still decent and safe is not wasted so that people can save excess food (overstock) from, among others, the three hospitality industries involved in the Sustainable Food Tourism Program.

Later, people can enjoy overstocked food from the hotel industry by paying half of the original price of the food. This effort is carried out by absorbing decent food that has been produced in the tourism industry, especially hotels, and then uploading it to the Surplus application so that food from the hotel can be enjoyed by the public.

"Our target in 2023 is to save more than 100 tons of food from the hotel industry which can prevent financial losses of IDR 5-10 billion and prevent more than 1,000 CO2 gases from being produced from 100 tons of food," said Agung Saputra.

He also wants to support domestic food security, which is often voiced by President Joko Widodo. “Usually changing the menu from breakfast to lunch or lunch to dinner provides room for the potential of overstock itself.

"Hopefully, we change the behavior of business actors from the hotel, cafe, and restaurant industry so that we can go great and we can be seen by foreign countries to be given opportunities in terms of a great investment," he said.