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

Effie Papargyropoulou,Rodrigo Lozano,Julia K Steinberger,Nigel Wright,Rory Padfield,Zaini Ujang

doi:10.3390/su11216016

Effie Papargyropoulou, Rodrigo Lozano + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216016

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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.

Highlights

One third of food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted, which amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tons per year [1]
Five case studies from the hospitality and food service sector in Malaysia were selected based on access, availability, type of food service, price range, type of cuisine, type of customers, primary function, and size
This research’s aim was to determine the patterns and causes of food waste generation in the hospitality and food service sector in Malaysia, in order to identify the most promising measures for food waste prevention. This aim was met by a) quantifying the biophysical and economic flows of food provisioning and waste generation, b) evaluating the social practices associated with food preparation and consumption, and c) linking the two in order to identify opportunities for food waste prevention

Summary

Introduction

One third of food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted, which amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tons per year [1]. The majority of research on food waste provides evidence from developed countries such as Scandinavia and Norther Europe [6,13,14], Northern America [15], and Southern Europe [16] with only few studies providing a developed country/ emerging economy perspective [17,18,19] Despite their different perspectives, methodological approaches, and contributions, all of the above studies highlight the lack of sufficient evidence on how, why, how much and what type of food is wasted in the HaFS sector, and what could be done to prevent it.

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