Erasmus+ IN2FOOD National Seminar on Food Waste Management themed “Sustainable Food Waste Management Towards National Food Security” successfully held on 7-8 October, 2021 and hosted by BINUS University. This seminar is organized and hosted by academics who are the Indonesian members of the Erasmus+ IN2FOOD project consortium, and is in collaboration with a college consortium called NUNI (Nationwide University Network in Indonesia) to provide an understanding , awareness, and insights on food waste, which is something that needs to be considered and managed properly;  provide education about food waste management among universities; share information on the best practices and research related to food waste management; share information about food waste management methods according to cultural values ​​and local wisdom; and optimize technology in food waste management. This national seminar is conducted online for two days with 4 keynotes speaker and presentations in pararel sessions attended by academia, students, and practicioner.

Angela Tanoesoedibjo from Indonesia Ministry of Tourism gave the opening remarks to this national level seminar. On the first day of the event, 7 October, 240 audience from various universities and industry related field participated.

Dr Tammara Soma, Indonesian scholar from Simon Fraser University, Canada present her long journey research titled “Transforming Food Consumption and Handling Food Waste: A Case Study of Bogor Indonesia.” Dr Tammara firstly share her interest in food since she was a little girl, when she help her mother with groceries. The experience of shopping with his mother and seeing various foods in a supermarket turned out to be an inspiration for Dr. Tammara to continue his study of food until she got her doctorate degree. In her long research, Dr Tammara revelead about the tales of Indonesia’s supermarket history, and even researching the contents of the refrigerators of various groups of Indonesian society to see the waste generated by each level of society.

On the second session, Dr Emil Kaburuan from BINUS University present his valuable research themed “Waste Bank Innovation Towards Zero Food Waste”.  Waste Bank, or Bank of the trash, turns out that it can be monetized if we can manage the trash. Food waste, according to the Dr Emil, if not handled properly can have a “deadly” effect. The innovation of Waste Bank in Indonesia help people to sort their trash and recycle trash. The conclusion is The Waste Bank has the potential as an educational center recycling waste management & waste processing organic.

As closing of the first day, Mr Faisal Tjandraatmaja as Head of Certicifiation in Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association Center (BPP PHRI) share his 25+ years of global experience in handling food waste in hotels and tourism industry. Based on his experience, Mr Faisal Tjandraatmaja also gave valuable recommendations for food waste management, strategies to prevent foodwaste management, simple audit in food waste tracking, and food donations.

In total, on 7 October 2021, there were 26 academic presenters from various university presented their research result in food waste management. These academic presenters came from Parahyangan University (UNPAR), University of Indonesia (UI), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Satya Wacana University, Sanata Dharma University, Ma Chung University, Pembangunan Jaya University, and National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. All of the presenters gave their most valuable research result in hope to contribute food waste management in Indonesia, to strengthen Indonesia’s National Food Security.

BINUS University also honored to invite Prof Dr Budi Widianarko, one of Indonesian top professors in the field of Food Ecology and food Safety that has been contribute on this field for more than 26 years, as the closing presentation of the expert speaker of this national level seminar.

Marked by closing speech of BINUS’s Rector, Dr Harjanto Prabowo, this national seminar was successfully held as a result of strong cooperation of several international universities partners (Simon Fraser University, Ghent University, Tampere University, and Hotelschool the Hague) and Indonesia’s local universities, and also Indonesia’s experts in industry practitioners. Hopefully, all of the knowledge share from scholars together with the industry practitioners can give valuable contribution to the related field of food technology.