Dubai Municipality launches food recovery programme for the needy

Dubai: The Food Control Department at Dubai Municipality announced the launch of 'Food Recovery Programme'. The move is aimed at distributing healthy, uneaten food from parties, households, commercial kitchens, markets and restaurants among people in need.

Khalid Sharif Al Awadhi, Director of the Food Control Department, said the department is currently working with charity organisations to lead this national effort by coordinating with public and private enterprises in order to rescue thousands of kilograms of healthy, uneaten food in this country that would otherwise be thrown away.

"Dubai imports around 85 per cent of the food and we waste an enormous amount of it. Nearly 20 per cent of food goes to waste in households, commercial kitchens, markets, and restaurants. Even in a society where just about everything is disposable, good food going to waste is unacceptable. This situation calls for us to act immediately," he said.

He noted that Dubai Municipality will lead the initiative to collect food and distribute to various organisation who in turn can distribute it to people in need. The type of foods that would be collected will include perishable produce from wholesale or retail sources, prepared foods from the food service industry and processed food with long shelf life.