Bread and Bakery Products Waste in Selected Mediterranean Arab Countries

Roberto CAPONE¹, Hamid EL BILALI^1, , Philipp DEBS¹, Francesco BOTTALICO^{1, 2}, Gianluigi CARDONE¹, Sinisa BERJAN³, Gehan A.G. ELMENOFI⁴, Aziz ABOUABDILLAH⁵, Laurence CHARBEL⁶, Samir ALI AROUS⁷ and Khaled SASSI⁸

¹Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Rural Development department; International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies in Bari (CIHEAM-Bari), Valenzano (Bari), Italy

²Department of Science and Technology, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy

³Faculty of Agriculture, University of East Sarajevo, East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

⁴Agriculture Extension and Rural Development Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza, Egypt

⁵Department of Agronomy, National School of Agriculture of Meknes, Meknes, Morocco

⁶Department of Geography, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Lebanese University, Fanar, Lebanon

⁷National Institute of Plant Protection, Algiers, Algeria

⁸Agronomy Laboratory, National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT), Tunis, Tunisia

Cite this paper:
Roberto CAPONE, Hamid EL BILALI, Philipp DEBS, Francesco BOTTALICO, Gianluigi CARDONE, Sinisa BERJAN, Gehan A.G. ELMENOFI, Aziz ABOUABDILLAH, Laurence CHARBEL, Samir ALI AROUS and Khaled SASSI. Bread and Bakery Products Waste in Selected Mediterranean Arab Countries. American Journal of Food and Nutrition. 2016; 4(2):40-50. doi: 10.12691/ajfn-4-2-2

Abstract

Losses and waste of food are high in Arab countries with negative implications in terms of food security and agro-food system sustainability. Cereals are among the most important contributors to caloric energy supply in Arab countries. Despite the fact that Arab countries are net cereal importers they waste considerable amounts of bread. The objective of the paper is to explore the issue of bread and bakery products wastage in selected Mediterranean Arab countries. The paper is based on a literature review as well as an online exploratory survey on household food waste in Mediterranean countries carried out in the period January-May 2015 with 1122 adult consumers in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. Cereals consumption is high in all concerned countries. Wheat is the most consumed cereal in the region and often as bread. Survey results show that cereals and bakery products, mainly bread, are among the most wasted food groups. Bakery products waste reach up to 20% in some surveyed households. Bread wastage is higher during the fasting month of Ramadan. Subsidized bread is used even as animal or fish feedstuff. Bread waste can be presented as a scandal in the Arab world as bread has a prominent place in Arab culture. Therefore, urgent actions are needed to raise the awareness of Arab consumers about this phenomenon. Cultural background should be exploited in awareness campaigns. Moreover, governments should speed up food support policy reform. In fact, bread waste is also wastage of precious public financial resources.

Keywords:
bread waste household food waste subsidies Arab countries

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