Patterns and Causes of Food Waste in the Hospitality and Food Service Sector: Food Waste Prevention Insights from Malaysia

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 ide...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2019-11, Vol.11 (21), p.6016
Main Authors: Papargyropoulou, Effie, Steinberger, Julia K., Wright, Nigel, Lozano, Rodrigo, Padfield, Rory, Ujang, Zaini
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Case studies
Comparative analysis
Consumers
Consumption
Customer services
Customers
Data collection
Economic impact
Food consumption
food loss
Food security
Food service
food service sector
Food supply
Food waste
food waste prevention
hospitality
Industrialized nations
Inventory
Medical wastes
Prevention
Qualitative research
Restaurants
Social networks
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11216016