20% fruit, veggies trashed a day in city

BANGALORE: Power, water, food, fruit and vegetables - name any precious resource and Bangalore wastes it aplenty.
A report by Emerson, a global engineering and technology company, has revealed that India, the world's largest producer of milk and the second largest producer of fruit and vegetables, is also one of the biggest food wasters in the world.Fruit, vegetables and grains worth Rs 440 billion are trashed every year.
In Bangalore, nearly 20% of fruit and vegetables that enter our markets end up in garbage dumps every day, say market associations. While the losses occur throughout the food chain, from farm to fork, 15%-20% of the farm produce is squandered in markets alone. The directorate of marketing and inspection, ministry of agriculture, attributes the wastage to the shortage in cold storage capacity in the state. In 2010, the shortage stood at 80% of the requirement.
"At least 20% vegetables and 15% fruit we bring to our shops go waste at the end of the day. These are mostly perishable items like green leaves and sensitive fruit varieties that cannot survive for more than a couple of days even in cold storage," says AH Mushtaq Ahmed, secretary, Russell Market, Shivajinagar.
The market has around 200 shops selling fresh fruits and vegetables. "Of 200 shops, around 50 sell fruit and the rest deal in vegetables. The market gets 400 tonnes of fruit and around 3,600 tonnes of vegetables every month. While the mildly damaged produce is sold at cheaper rates, rotten fruit and vegetables can only be thrown away," says Mushtaq.
Going by the numbers, wastage at Russell Market alone accounts for around 50 tonnes of fruit and over 800 tonnes of vegetables every month.
"The entire farm produce cannot be utilized under any circumstances. Most fruits and vegetables are perishable and 20%-25% of them have to be trashed," says RV Gopi, president, Sri Krishna Rajendra Market Traders And Consumers' Association.
(With inputs from Aparajita Ray)
Wastage galore in Bangalore
* A survey by a team of 10 professors from the University of Agricultural Sciences shows 943 tonnes of quality food is wasted in marriage halls annually; this is enough to feed 2.6 crore mouths once a day
* Roughly, 84,960 marriages are held at 531 kalyana mantapas in Bangalore each year. At an average cost of Rs 40 per meal, total food wasted adds up to around Rs 339 crore
* Around 400 million litres per day (MLD), a whopping 37-43% of the total supply, is wasted, says BWSSB. This, despite a water shortage crippling the city every summer
* Officials attribute the loss to unmetered and illegal drawing of water, cracks and valve leakages. "A family of eight requires 20 litres of water for cooking and drinking a day, but households consume Cauvery water for all non-potable purposes," rues T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB
* City consumes 25% (35 million units) of the state's daily power requirement. Wastage is determined through transmission and distribution losses only, and stands at 8%
* Wastage through unwanted lighting and electricity usage by consumers goes unaccounted and the power utility is still not able to track this loss
* Bescom supplies power to 8 districts, requiring 50% of the state's requirement. Daily transmission and distribution loss approximates to 14%
* Fruit, vegetables, grain worth Rs 440 billion go waste each year
* Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana, says approximately 18% vegetables worth Rs 133 billion go waste annually
* Karnataka's existing cold storage capacity is 4.07 lakh tonnes; required capacity is 24.04 lakh tonnes; shortfall is 19.97 lakh tonnes
* Multi-commodity cold storage facility: Has separate chambers that operate at various temperatures, can store fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, spices, pulses, milk throughout the year
* Controlled atmosphere storage facility: Mainly used for long-term storage of highly perishable items such as fruits, regulates temperature along with concentration levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide for specific product
* Ripening chamber: Helps maintain conditions specific to the product's requirement; ripening is more uniform and the fruit has firmer pulp texture and better flavour
(Source: Emerson Food Wastage and Cold Storage report)