08 February,2026 09:23 AM IST | Mumbai | Nasrin Modak Siddiqi
Representational Image
In a country that feeds over a billion people, India's food waste is a stark paradox. Even as hunger and rising food prices dominate public debate, food continues to be wasted at scale across supply chains, restaurants, and homes effecting food security, the economy, and the environment.
The UN Environment Programme's Food Waste Index Report 2024 estimates that nearly 30 per cent of global food waste comes from the food service sector, placing restaurants and cafés among the biggest contributors in India. Our households generate around 55 kilos of food waste per person each year.
This waste persists alongside pre-retail losses caused by inadequate storage, transport, and cold-chain infrastructure, amplifying economic losses and greenhouse gas emissions, exposing deep inefficiencies across India's food system.
1 Problem: Treating food waste as a disposal issue
Food waste is addressed at the end with either composting leftovers or donating excess. This framing misses the real drivers: overproduction, poor planning, entitlement, and a disconnect from the resources behind food.
Solution: Design âprevention' in
For Dr Aarti Gautam, founder of the Amulya Boondh Foundation, prevention starts long before food reaches the bin. "This was never about saving money," she says. "Money can be earned again. Resources cannot."
Dr Aarti Gautam bringing sustainability learning to rural classrooms
She began her work in 2015 and formalised Boondh as a Section 8 non-profit in 2019, funding the early years entirely through personal savings, teaching work, family support, and even her wedding jewellery. "That's how strongly I believed in the work," she adds.
2 Problem: Food is disconnected from resource realities
Food waste is discussed in isolation, stripped of its links to water scarcity, soil health, farmer labour, and energy use, reducing it to a disposable commodity.
Solution: Reconnect food to water, labour, and land
"Water waste comes before food waste," explains Dr Gautam. Training in Zero Budget Natural Farming under Padma Shri Subhash Palekar exposed her to the true cost of food. "One bowl of rice represents water, soil, labour, storage, and transport. We throw it away because we're full or bored. This is the mindset that needs rework," she adds.
3 Problem: Composting mistaken for sustainability
Composting is used to justify overcooking and over-serving because waste can be "managed."
Solution: Treat composting as a last resort
"Composting is the best outcome of waste, not the best use of food," argues Dr Gautam. "If you cook only what you need, there is no waste to manage," she adds.
4 Problem: Entitlement at the plate
Weddings, conferences, and buffets encourage waste through entitlement. The belief that paying permits excess, and social pressure compound this, with diners overloading plates to avoid having to refill and being judged as gluttonous.
Solution: Reset behaviour at the point of consumption
"Take only what you can finish. Go back for refills without shame. Money doesn't give you the right to waste and this must be ingrained early on," she adds.
5 Problem: Doggy bags
Leftover food is excused for donation, turning donation into a guilt offset.
Solution: Redefine what donation means
"Donation is giving something you yourself value. Like blood; it doesn't come back easily. The same standard must apply to food. Ask yourself if you would eat what you're offering someone else?" she questions.
6 Problem: Waste disguised as education
In schools, cooking activities and themed lunches often generate waste. Children assemble dishes without understanding ingredients, while parents are forced to buy excess due to fixed market quantities.
Solution: Teach food literacy, not performance
Dr Gautam advocates practical food skills like cutting vegetables, fermenting curd, kneading dough that are grounded in everyday cooking.
7 Problem: Convenience-driven overconsumption
Quick-commerce platforms and deep discounts normalise over-ordering in the name of ease.
Solution: Pair access with restraint
"Ordering food you don't need because it's convenient is still waste, even if it's eaten later. Ease must be matched with intention." she says.
The core issue: Mindset, not leftovers
At the heart of food waste is culture. "Food is a basic necessity; luxury food is not. The ability to buy excess has blurred the value of resources behind it," she adds.
Change begins before the bin.
"Food waste isn't about leftovers. It is about entitlement, discrimination, and forgetting the value of resources. Change doesn't begin in the bin, it begins in the mind," she concludes.
