Minister K H Muniyappa urges hospitality industry to take measures to reduce food wastage

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K H Muniyappa, recently expressed concern over wastage of food and urged the hospitality industry to take steps to reduce food wastage.

“Food wastage is a major crisis. A lot of steps are taken to harvest water, electricity and other resources to produce food grains, but about 25 per cent of it gets wasted. The hospitality industry, in particular, can take steps to prevent food wastage, especially in dining halls and marriage halls,” Muniyappa said when he was speaking at South India's biggest HoReCa (Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering) trade show, World of Hospitality Expo, that just concluded in the city recently.

He said that he would meet all key stakeholders of the hotel industry in the state to put in place critical steps to achieve better food security.

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As a part of the expo, the Incredible Chef Challenge (ICC) was held in association with South India Chefs’ Association (SICA). Close to 200 young talents across hotel chains and institutes participated in the event to showcase their skills.

Chef Damodharan K, Indian celebrity chef and Guinness World Record holder for the longest cooking marathon by a single individual opined that there is huge scope to work in the food industry but the number of students who are interested in joining the sector is low.

“Compared to other industries only as much as 15 per cent of students are interested in joining food industry,” he said.

BV Gopal Reddy, President, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry; PC Rao, President, Bruhat Bangalore Hotels Association; Dr Jitendra P Dongare, Deputy Agricultural Marketing Advisor Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India were at the event that just concluded at Tripura Vasini, Palace Grounds.

Event also included a special talk on the ‘Future of Food and Beverage in India’ held by the Bangalore Chambers of Industry and Commerce and Food Service Consultants Association Of India (FSCAI).