Chen Xuanlin (FoS), Neo Wei Hang (FASS), Tan Jia Jia Amelia (FASS), Tay Li Na (FoE), Wang Xiaodan (SDE)
Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari
According to a National Environment Agency study conducted in 2015, Singapore had 785,500 tonnes of food waste with only 13% of the food waste being recycled. That implies that on average, Singaporeans are wasting 140kg of food annually. To compound the issue, Singapore’s food waste has increased by 47.8% in a decade. As a small nation, reliant on imported food, a staggering 13% of its food imports ends up as waste, creating an unsustainable scenario with grave environmental implications. For processed food, a large percentage of this food waste may often result from confusing food labels that are not correctly understood or interpreted by consumers. Our project decided to explore this problem in the context of residents at the Ridge View Residential College (RVRC). A large fraction of residents purchase and store foods incorrectly in their rooms or the common pantries. This often results in food waste, evident from the numerous management-conducted food clearing exercise done in the common pantries. Our group has identified the following two points as key reasons to why this issue is happening: (1) Lack of awareness and implications of the different type of food labels, and (2) Lack of awareness of the proper storage methods of different food types. Our study will conduct surveys to measure the current awareness of RVRC residents on both these factors. We will concurrently be carrying out a college wide campaign to raise awareness about food labels and food waste through posters and social media platforms. We will document our findings and explore if increasing awareness about food labels could be an effective solution to mitigate food waste.
Keywords: Food, Waste Management, Food labelling, Food waste, Responsible consumption