• Keynote speaker: Zaid Al-Shabanat.
• Speaker 1:   Khaled Al-Fuhaid.
• Speaker 2:   Meshary Al-Naeem.
• Speaker 3:   Faiza Al-Ajrush.
• Moderator:  Alia’ Al-Bazei.

Summary:

The keynote speaker indicated that the main reason for launching the National Program to Reduce Food Waste and Waste in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the widespread food loss and waste. The program aims at mitigating the economic, social, and environmental impacts of this phenomenon. With the collective effort of all constituents of society, including families, merchants, and media, this phenomenon has to be challenged.

The percentage of food loss and waste is said to be higher in industrialized countries than in the developing ones. Food loss is more characteristic of developed countries, especially after reaching the consumer. However, in developing countries, it occurs more during production and marketing.

The program seeks to achieve the goals of Vision 2030 by utilizing the natural resources by applying the latest international standards and experiences. The goal is to reduce lost and wasted quantities of food, identify how deep the problem is, seek possible solutions.

Emphasis should be made to the importance of what was stated in the program regarding the analysis of economic, social, and cultural causes that result in food loss and waste in the Kingdom. Besides, the program links the issue of providing food with several important issues that touch upon several basic aspects that the entire world is suffering from nowadays, the most important of which are focusing on scarce water resources and the significant economic loss resulting from lacking rationalization in food resources. This goes along with the environmental consequences that result from waste, as well as lacking social awareness, where the society is unaware of the problem.

The Contributions on the issue included several themes, most notably:

• The relationship between food loss and waste.
• The position of religion on food loss and waste.
• The contribution of mobile applications to increasing the problem of food loss and waste.
• Culture and social customs and their relationship to the problem of food loss and waste.
• The economic class of individuals and its relationship to the problem of food loss and waste.
• The promotion of role models in the society to reduce the problem of food loss and waste.
• The efforts of international organizations to reduce the problems of food loss and waste.

For more information on the issue, please refer to the link:

Recommendations:

1. Enacting and enforcing laws on food waste, with penalties imposed on offenders.
2. Encouraging investments for reaching knowledge economy to harness research in agriculture; shedding light on the losses across the whole food chain while showing areas of potential loss; and assessing volumes of loss with highlighting the major agricultural, productive, manufacturing, and marketing practices.
3. Providing financial and procedural facilities for the private sector. This includes establishing factories with international standards, where annual festivals are hosted (for dates, citruses, vegetables, dairies and cheese products) to mitigate food waste or losses resulting from mistakes in packaging and transport and curb environmental pollution by transferring surplus food into fertilizers, supplements or cosmetics.
4. Stimulating the private sector to carry out its national role in the social responsibility of curbing food loss and waste. This may take place through coordination with the concerned agencies.
5. Offering annual awards for the hotels and restaurants that sign agreements with the grace-save societies.