Abstract
Future challenges to the global food supply chain are complex. In order to embrace sustainability, companies should change their management practices towards more efficient resource use. Food waste being a misuse of resources, we identify its causes and possible ways of minimising it. To achieve this goal, we conducted explorative research with qualitative and quantitative data through in-depth semi-structured interviews and an open questionnaire with top Spanish food service companies. Results show that most businesses mainly tend to minimise food waste according to economic criteria, without taking into account the social, ethical or environmental factors. As a consequence, just “visible” food waste that has an economic impact on the results is minimised. Nevertheless, visibility of real waste is often low. At the same time, awareness of (and therefore initiatives to reduce) food waste that does not directly affect a firm’s profit can be increased through multi-stakeholder collaboration. Opportunities for reducing food waste therefore arise from increasing the visibility of food that is discarded as well as addressing plate waste. We identify best practices that could lead to a reduction of the amount of food waste generated in the out of home channel in Spain.
Highlights
Sustainable development has been defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [1]
We find the analysis proposed by FUSIONS [30] interesting, where among the causes of food waste in the Food Service channel, our research object, they mention five which are related to technology, storage, equipment and containers and lack of good practice, opposed to business related drivers such as the difficulty to estimate and calculate the right amount of food to cook, consumer expectations, prediction and demand forecasting, inflexibility in portioning, food being prepared but not served, food being served but not eaten, contracts imposing caterers to provide a wide assortment, prioritise turnover and consumer satisfaction, and variety in choices offered [30]
Our paper provides new contributions to the literature on Food Waste: firstly, a new conceptualisation on food waste based on business reality; secondly, our quantitative analysis shows that the problem is relevant in the Food Service channel in Spain; and, thirdly, we identify specific best practices for Spain
Summary
Sustainable development has been defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [1] Under this context, the food system is closely related to sustainability as production must be augmented to meet the needs of a future increased and more affluent population demand [2] resulting in increased competition for more and more scarce resources. Food waste has increased over the last few years and if nothing is done will continue increasing in the near future [8] For this reason, as observed by Warshawsky [9], it has emerged as a critical issue attributable to unsustainable production and consumption. FAO estimates direct economic cost of food wastage of agricultural products, based on producer prices only, in about USD 750 billion, an impressive figure, equivalent to the GDP of Switzerland [14]
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