[국감 브리핑] Rep. Hwang Hee: “The meal and feeding system needs to be improved”
Food waste emissions per military member were found to be twice as much as emissions per citizen. Last year, it cost close to 20 billion won to dispose of food waste generated by the military.
According to the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Hwang Hee, a member of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly, on the 13th, food waste emissions per soldier by military service last year were 281.7 kg for the Marine Corps, 244 kg for the Army, 167.1 kg for the Air Force, and 158.9 kg for the Navy.
Considering that the emissions per citizen are about 113.5 kg, the emissions per military service member (212.9 kg) are about twice as much.
The amount of food waste processed by year is increasing: 104,456 tons in 2019, 105,675 tons in 2020, 107,818 tons in 21, 112,870 tons in 2022, and 112,792 tons in 2023.
Accordingly, food waste disposal costs also increased to KRW 14.1 billion in 2019, KRW 18.4 billion in 2020, KRW 18.9 billion in 21, KRW 19 billion in 22, and KRW 19.8 billion in 2023.
It is pointed out that the reason why the amount of food waste disposal is increasing while the number of military personnel continues to decrease is because satisfaction with military meals is decreasing and there are problems with the food service system.
Last year, satisfaction with military meal service was 3.37 out of 5. Additionally, satisfaction with the quality of meals was 3.28 points.
In addition, there are a total of 200 nutritionists in each military service, including 110 in the Army, 18 in the Navy, 36 in the Air Force, 7 in the Marine Corps, and 29 in units directly under the Ministry of National Defense. Considering that the total number of people in the county is about 500,000, each nutritionist is responsible for about 2,500 people. On the other hand, as of February this year, there were 11,226 nutritionists assigned to elementary, middle, and high schools across the country, and the number of students per person was about 468.8.
Rep. Hwang said, “There is still a need for the diversity, taste, and nutritional balance of military meals,” and added, “We will check the satisfaction status of military meals and the feeding system and improve the feeding and feeding system by expanding meal service personnel such as nutritionists to prevent excessive food waste generation.” “It needs to be reduced,” he said.
(Seoul = News 1)