| Summary: | Food waste has been a worldwide concern for several decades, however, COVID-19 is making the problem even worse. According to Alvin Chen, the cofounder of What a Waste (WaW), there will be a devastating figure of food waste over the Malaysia movement Control Order (MCO) (Murad, 2020). Through his initial observation during MCO, he has estimated that food wastage throughout
MCO could be thousand of tonnes. A total amount of 3,000 tonnes edible food that is still good to consume has been dumped in landfills everyday in Malaysia (Jereme, I.A., Siwar, C., Begum, R.A. and Basri, 2016; Mohamed, N.A.R, 2020). In response to this, the Malaysian government took the initial step by sanctioning an act - Akta Pembaziran Makanan in December 2018 to limit this (Berita awani, 2018). Much effort has already been taken to reduce food waste across each food value chain stages. However even if approaches to reduce losses at the production and storage stages in developing countries prove successful, these gains might be offset by increases in food waste at the consumption end of the value chain as the global middle class grows (Lipinsky et al., 2013). There have been many studies that explore how to reduce or prevent food waste at the consumption stage through the use of mobile applications. However, they focused more on reducing household food waste (Lim et al., 2017; Farr-Wharton et al., 2014; Ciaghi & Villafiorita, 2016). Moreover, the efforts in managing household food waste although promote donation unfortunately not specifically target the underprivileged group. The effort to donate excess food also in line with the concept of sadaqah from Islamic
perspective (Khairuddin, Sharina Farihah, & Azila, 2015, pp. 233-234). To give out assistance to the needy people, in Islamic context, Asnaf group, Islamiciv authorities in Malaysia have launched initiatives to give out the food supplies to the Asnaf as according to their masjid kariah or district and it is proven successful (Lembaga Zakat Kedah, 2020). The effort proves that Islamic authority in Malaysia is constantly doing efforts to improve the livehood of Asnaf. This study, initially, look at the angle of unspoiled excess food from local food producers by promoting food sharing as the sadaqah to Asnaf group through the use of AsnafFood mobile application. However, unique to this study, when it comes to food sadaqah for the Asnaf, food producers together with the donors’
fund contribution are more than willing to give away fresh food instead. This study have discovered that minimal food waste in the food producers’ premise studied, as food waste control measures are already put in place to control the food portion. It is foreseen that our solution will match the needs of Asnaf to have food, and donors, through food producers, who wished to sadaqah food
via location-based mobile app. It is hope that this solution may improve the sustenance of Asnaf through giving them financial assistances through free food
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