Abstract
Food waste has formidable detrimental impacts on food security, the environment, and the economy, which makes it a global challenge that requires urgent attention. This study investigates the patterns and causes of food waste generation in the hospitality and food service sector, with the aim of identifying the most promising food waste prevention measures. It presents a comparative analysis of five case studies from the hospitality and food service (HaFS) sector in Malaysia and uses a mixed-methods approach. This paper provides new empirical evidence to highlight the significant opportunity and scope for food waste reduction in the HaFS sector. The findings suggest that the scale of the problem is even bigger than previously thought. Nearly a third of all food was wasted in the case studies presented, and almost half of it was avoidable. Preparation waste was the largest fraction, followed by buffet leftover and then customer plate waste. Food waste represented an economic loss equal to 23% of the value of the food purchased. Causes of food waste generation included the restaurants' operating procedures and policies, and the social practices related to food consumption. Therefore, food waste prevention strategies should be twofold, tackling both the way the hospitality and food service sector outlets operate and organise themselves, and the customers' social practices related to food consumption.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 6016 |
Journal | Sustainability (Switzerland) |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to express their gratitude to the HaFS operations and their staff that took part in this research, as well as the research assistants and colleagues for all their hard (and dirty) work during the data collection This research received no external funding. The APC was funded by the University of Leeds
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.
Keywords
- Food loss
- Food service sector
- Food waste
- Food waste prevention
- Hospitality
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science (miscellaneous)
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Building and Construction
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology
- Hardware and Architecture
- Computer Networks and Communications
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law