UAE to consider issuing fines for household food waste

The UAE may start imposing fines on households generating high levels of food waste, according to a report by the National on Sunday.

Citing the head of Ne’ma, the Gulf state’s food and loss initiative, Khuloud Hasan Al-Nuwais said the problem of food waste in the Emirates was “deeply distressing.”

“As the head of this initiative, I am acutely aware of the distressing situation in many regions around the globe, where food insecurity is a significant concern and thousands of people are struggling for food and water,” she said.

According to Ne’ma, which means “blessing” in English, around $1.63 billion (DH6 billion) of food is wasted in the UAE each year, with each person wasting an average of 224 kilogrammes of food annually. The initiative was launched last year in March. In June Ne’ma partnered up with the Emirates Red Crescent, signing an agreement to work together in redistributing surplus food from the catering and hospitality sectors to the less fortunate.

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On Sunday, the Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Mariam Al-Mheiri, announced a nationwide action plan aimed at reducing food waste by 50 per cent by 2030. Plans to cut food waste by the end of the decade were first unveiled in 2018 as part of the UAE’s food pledge.

With only a few days away from our nation hosting #COP28, we affirm the strong commitment of the UAE in working with all sectors that have a defining role in addressing the impact of climate change. Food and agriculture systems play a pivotal role in this regard, especially with… pic.twitter.com/rhwQ9Bp37t

— Mariam Almheiri | مريم المهيري (@mariammalmheiri) November 19, 2023

Commenting on the prospects of introducing a fine, Al-Nuwais said: “I don’t believe that the right approach is to immediately start enforcing fines, but it is coming.”

“If you start paying a fee based on how much waste you generate – like water and electricity – only then will you start becoming conscious about how much food you are wasting.”

The official also said that the initiative will assess the cause of food waste across the food supply chain: “One of our main focuses now is on tracking data – how food is being wasted by hotels, restaurants, households, supermarkets and the different sectors, beginning with the producers and ending with the consumers.”

“Unfortunately, until recently, the UAE has not been tracking how much food is being wasted.”

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