Implementing projects about food waste and safety, the Sabri Ülker Foundation successfully completed its “Citizen Labs of Turkey and Malta” which it coordinates and which was entitled to get funding from EIT Food, Europe’s leading food innovation startup. With the project carried out by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) and Malta Food Agency, 5000 people were reached out with awareness-raising publications about food waste in as shortly as four months.

The Sabri Ülker Foundation which conducts its works with the purpose of the dissemination of the awareness of the future of social health and eating right completed its project that it started four months ago within this scope with the event that took place in Malta. The closing of the “Citizen Labs of Turkey and Malta” project which was entitled to get funding from EIT Food took place on Monday, December 5 in Malta with the event which was attended by Kerem Ahmet Kıratlı, Turkey’s Ambassador in Valetta, as well as project partners and experts.

The project, which started in the August of 2022 with the goal of preventing information pollution about food safety that increased with the pandemic, and to raise awareness about food waste, was coordinated by the Sabri Ülker Foundation and carried out by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) and Malta Food Agency.

Completed within 4 months

The Sabri Ülker Foundation General Secretary Selen Tokcan who spoke at the closing event of the project said, “Our Foundation successfully represents Turkey in Europe by playing an active role in European Union projects. We are proud to be Turkey’s first Foundation to become entitled to get funding from EIT Food with the ‘Citizen Labs of Turkey and Malta’ project which we have recently implemented within this scope”.

Tokcan, who addressed the ‘Consumer’s Bread Waste Study-TİA 2022’ study which sheds light to the latest data in the field of food waste, which had an effect in the birth of the project, pointed out that 4.9 million breads are wasted daily in Turkey where food is 52 percent of the amount of waste in the garbage. And we were sad to see that the biggest loss is in fruits and vegetables. The ‘Citizen Labs of Turkey and Malta’ project which we started considering this large amount of food waste is not only an intercultural project, but it also stands out as a quite productive work where the NGOs and institutions of both countries join forces to create this awareness and make a change. Our project was successfully completed in 4 months with the goal of raising an awareness in society regarding food safety and waste in local products”, she said.

5000 people were reached out with the project

Informative contents for the consumer were created about all factors affecting public health, from the process of food preparation at home to food safety and hygiene, within the scope of the project which was started in September of 2022 with the goals of increasing consumer’s trust in food and creating a consumer awareness about food waste. 5000 people were reached out in as shortly as 4 months within the scope of the project whose main focus is to raise awareness about food waste in Malta and Turkey.