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According to FAO’s estimation in 2019, approximately 14% of the world's annual food production is lost from production to retail. Reducing this loss by just 1 percentage point equates to an increase in production of over 27 million tons of food, enough to feed 70 million people for a year. In October 2021, China’s State Council issued the "Action Plan for Grain Conservation", implementing targeted measures at every link in the industrial chain to promote grain conservation and reduce loss. The following is an excerpt from this document:
Promoting food conservation and loss reduction in the food processing sector
Improve the conversion rate of grain and oil processing. Develop and revise standards for staple food processing such as wheat flour and edible oil, perfect moderate processing standards, reasonably determine processing precision and other indicators, and guide consumers gradually out of the dietary misconception of over-pursuing "refined rice and white flour", improving the output rate of grain and oil. Enhance the digital management level of the food processing industry. Promote the intelligent transformation of flour processing equipment, promote low-temperature rice milling equipment, encourage the use of flexible rice processing equipment, and guide the moderate processing of oilseeds. Develop the whole grain industry, and initiate the "National Whole Grain Action Plan". Innovate food processing and distribution models, support catering units to make full use of central kitchens, and accelerate the construction of staple food distribution centres and cold chain support systems.
Strengthen the reduction and substitution of feed grain. Promote the reduction and substitution of corn and soybean meal in pig and chicken feed, and fully utilize alternative resources such as coarse grains, miscellaneous meals, and by-products of grain processing. Improve oil extraction processes to enhance the quality of mixed meals. Perfect the national feed raw material nutritional value database, guide feed companies to establish diversified feed formula structures, promote precise feed formulation technology and accurate preparation processes. Accelerate the promotion of low-protein feed technology, improve the efficiency of protein feed utilization, and reduce the ratio of soybean meal addition. Increase the supply of high-quality forage to reduce the amount of concentrate feed in cattle and sheep breeding.
Strengthen the comprehensive utilization of grain resources. Effectively utilize by-products of grain and oil processing such as rice bran, bran, germ, oil meal, potato slag and potato juice to produce edible products, functional substances, and industrial products. Regulate the development of the biomass energy processing industry using grain as raw materials.
Promoting S&T innovation in food conservation and loss reduction
Strengthen the technical support for grain production. Promote the R&D of key common technologies in seeding and harvesting stages such as pneumatic seeding, low-loss feeding, efficient cleaning and selection, and operational monitoring. Breakthrough terrain-matching technology, develop advanced and applicable technology and equipment that matches the agricultural production mode of hilly and mountainous areas, focus on the precision manufacturing of key components, and reduce the mechanical harvest loss of grain in hilly and mountainous areas. Strengthen the R&D of harvesting machinery for crops affected by lodging and other disasters. Guide enterprises to carry out key projects on high-efficiency and low-loss grain harvesting machinery, and optimize the abilities of cutter bar, threshing, separation, and cleaning and selection.
Promote the upgrading of key technologies for storage and transportation loss reduction. Develop safe, low-temperature, high-efficiency, energy-saving, and intelligent grain storage technology. Improve the level of pest and mildew control in warehouses, and develop new drugs. Promote new types of safe grain storage, and advance the application of horizontal ventilation grain storage technology. Develop mobile drying equipment and accelerate experimental verification. Study the standardization technology of transportation tools, develop bulk grain multi-modal transportation connection and loading and unloading technology and equipment, and grain prevention grading and breakage into warehouse devices and equipment.
Improve the level of grain processing technology and equipment R&D. Develop technologies for stable control of whole grain raw material quality, edible quality improvement, active retention, develop nutrition-preserving whole grain foods. Study key technologies for value-added processing of raw grain, develop key technologies for quality control of coarse grain food products, balanced nutritional configuration, and biological processing. Plan the national agricultural high-tech industrial demonstration area dominated by grain processing, promote the industry's transformation towards high-end, intelligent, and green, and improve the level of by-product utilization technology.
Original text link:
"Food Conservation Action Plan"
