To support the national initiatives of the Year of Sustainability 2024 

Among the Year of Sustainability 2024 activities and the United Arab Emirates University’s map to COP28 and Beyond (2023-2026), the UAE University funded four student research projects addressing food waste, as part of the Student Sustainable Development Goals Research Programme which has been launched recently in 2022. 

Prof. Ahmad Ali Murad, the Associate Provost for Research at UAE University, noted that supporting these projects is part of the university’s societal role in finding innovative solutions to social challenges such as food waste and in collaboration with researchers and CAVM students. These projects also align with the Office of the Associate Provost for Research map to build an academic research system centred on university students. 

The Associate Provost for Research assured that these research projects are of particular importance because it aims to enhance the skills of university students and to empower them in using research tools and to connect them with the other educational tools to develop scientific solutions for scientific challenges. The first scientific edition, which is related to supporting sustainable development goals, focused on a number of important scientific subjects, such as: the sustainable approach to extending storage life and reducing perishable fruit and vegetable loss, in addition to creating date palm waste-based plastic alternative for fabrication of active food packaging material and embracing date seeds for sustainable food solutions, and another study which focuses on quantifying food loss and waste during primary production and processing – A case study of the chicken meat industry in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. 

For his part, Dr. Mohammed Abdul Muhsen Alyafei, Acting Dean, College of Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine stated” reducing food waste and loss to below 50% is one of the important development goals that the government of the United Arab Emirates will adapt in the coming years. As changing consumer’s pattern and behaviour, and food sustainability adaptation are among the crucial solutions to reduce food waste or loss at retail outlets, field, and farm levels. The benefits of reducing food waste lies in reducing the negative impact on natural resource consumption and depletion, thereby contributing to reducing the expected damage of climate change, as food waste is one of the important future challenges facing the society of the UAE.”