While a large number of people in India continue to starve due to poverty and unavailability of food, the statistics of food being wasted in the country will undoubtedly raise the eyebrows of everyone. Do you know as to how many fruits and vegetables go utter waste? Well, not just a per cent or two, but 18 per cent of them is being wasted. And imagine the cost of them! It's absolutely Rs.44,000 crore, which is Rs. 440 billion. Incredible…..but true!!!

A study conducted by the Central Institute for Post Harvest Engineering & Technology, Ludhiana stated that 18 per cent of veggies and fruits goes waste. Although the study was published in 2010, it came to light when Minister of State for Food processing Industries, Charan Das Mahant mentioned in a written statement in Rajya Sabha.

He has also said that India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables. The parliament was informed that so much of food was going waste as there was no proper cold chain storage infrastructure.

If we look at the statistics, the fruit production was 74.877 million tones and vegetables was 146.554 million tones in 2010-11. Hope the Centre looks into this issue swiftly. (Phani)