In every Indian wedding, food is the most important part and the most wasted too! In India, statistics related to food wastage at weddings have been quite shocking, given the fact that it is the same country where countless number of people have to survive without the basic necessity of two meals a day. Following list by VenueMonk will give you an idea as to how much food is actually being wasted. Have a look:

As the ranks of India’s wealthy surge with rapid economic growth, many families are staging extravagant displays of food at their children’s weddings to show off their newfound affluence.

About one-fifth of the food served at weddings and social gatherings is discarded. The prodigious waste that follows has horrified many in a country where food prices are skyrocketing and tens of millions of young children are malnourished.

Guests invited in weddings are mostly responsible for the food wastage because of different thoughts, mostly they have the fear that if they go second time to take the food they won’t get it, for the first time they have seen the food they have never eaten before or due to lack of education they do not realize that if they take extra food it will get wasted.

Around 100,000 weddings and social events are held in India every day. Food wasted each day at weddings and family functions in Mumbai alone would be enough to feed the city’s vast slum population.

About 58 per cent of people in the country are food insecure, says the findings of the National Nutritional Survey (NNS) 2011. The country has enough food to feed its people but that poor cannot afford even two-square meals a day.

Some 15-20 per cent of food is wasted in marriages and various such social functions. In some cases, the waste is to the extent of 20-25 per cent when the number of dishes exceeds the number of guests invited to the marriage halls.

About 21 million tonnes of wheat are wasted in India and 50% of all food across the world meets the same fate and never reaches the needy. In fact, according to the agriculture ministry, Rs. 50,000 crore worth of food produced is wasted every year in the country.

The wastage of food in social gatherings in India is at an alarming rate and needs to be looked at immediately. One should opt for various ways to avoid such exorbitant wastage. The next time you savour a wedding feast, spare a thought for the masses which go without two square meals a day!

And to plan a wastage free wedding, visit VenueMonk.com