This study critically analyzes the literature on food waste in restaurants. Through a systematic literature review approach based on the evaluation and synthesis of articles, existing gaps in the ...literature and key research directions for the future research agenda were identified. Thematic analysis was applied to organize the selected articles around five themes representing various aspects of food waste. The themes ranged from food waste in restaurants' operational processes to best practices. Accordingly, it was found that the increase in empirical research has brought both new findings and new problems concerning food waste at the end-consumer level in restaurants. Consumer research on plate waste at the end-consumer level and the type of food on the plate, as well as on doggy bags and their use as one of the good practices, require a special emphasis on responsible production and consumption and good practices in line with sustainable development goals.
•It can be seen that a consumer leaves at least 80.21 g of waste on their plate and the most wasted foods in all studies are meat, vegetables and rice.•Doggy bags are one of the examples of good practice that have come to the fore in the literature in recent years and represent a new research agenda.•One of the most striking findings is that tourists waste more in restaurants than locals.•Behavioural intention and behavioural control are key concepts in the relationship between restaurant food waste and consumer behaviour.•Researchers' findings on the stage at which food waste occurs in restaurants are not parallel.
Purpose
This paper aims to illustrate the application and effectiveness of a marketing programme co-designed by supply- and demand-side stakeholders to reduce consumer food waste in restaurants.
...Design/methodology/approach
This stakeholder-based marketing pilot study adopted the co-create, build and engage framework for programme design and implementation. Major stakeholders, interacting at the point-of-sale, participated in a series of focus groups, interviews and co-design. The research process informed the marketing mix, which aimed to provide value for all parties. The four-week pilot programme was delivered in a non-buffet-style commercial restaurant chain for 10 months. The amount of consumer food leftovers was measured and compared with pre-programme baseline data to evaluate programme effectiveness.
Findings
The results show that the marketing mix co-designed by restaurant stakeholders and consumers effectively reduced food waste by almost half in the pilot period. The profitability of the pilot restaurant increased as food costs decreased.
Research limitations/implications
This research demonstrates how working with stakeholders from both the supply and demand sides can identify motivations and barriers. Insights gained in the research phase can inform the delivery of a marketing mix that reduces consumer food waste. This study demonstrates the marketing research, design, implementation and evaluation process for a marketing programme that reduced consumer food waste.
Practical implications
To effectively reduce consumer food waste, practitioners should not only focus on changing consumers’ behaviour. Co-designing solutions with food service stakeholders to address business and operation challenges is crucial to the attainment of a positive impact at the point-of-sale.
Originality/value
This research shows how marketing changes behaviour in individuals and business entities, contributing to positive environmental impact through waste reduction in the commercial food service sector.
Twenty percent of all global greenhouse emissions are food-related. Tourism and hospitality contribute significantly, with food accounting for nearly half of the waste these sectors produce. One type ...of food waste – plate waste – could easily be avoided. Plate waste is the food people leave behind uneaten on their plates. It does not increase the enjoyment of the meal, yet costs the hotel money, and harms the environment. We develop and test – in a quasi-experimental field study – a game-based intervention that reduces plate waste by 34 percent, and is available for immediate adoption by hotels globally. Our study contributes to theory by demonstrating the power of increasing pleasure in pleasure-seeking contexts when aiming to change environmentally significant tourist behaviour. Our findings also challenge established behavioural theories, which postulate that people's beliefs are the key drivers of pro-environmental behaviour.
•Plate waste burdens the environment substantially.•Plate waste is a significant cost factor for hotels.•In line with utility theory, a stamp collection booklet reduces family plate waste by 34%.•Guest satisfaction is not affected, and hotel expenses are reduced.
Room service is a foodservice model that has been increasingly implemented across health care facilities in an effort to improve patient satisfaction and reduce food waste. In 2013, Mater Private ...Hospital Brisbane, Australia, was the first hospital in Australia to implement room service, with the aim of improving patient nutrition care and reducing costs.
The aim of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the nutritional intake, plate waste, patient satisfaction, and patient meal costs of room service compared to a traditional foodservice model.
A retrospective analysis of quality-assurance data audits was undertaken to assess patient nutritional intake between a facility utilizing a traditional foodservice model and a facility utilizing room service and in a pre−post study design to assess plate waste, patient satisfaction, and patient meal costs before and after the room service implementation.
Audit data were collected for eligible adult inpatients in Mater Private Hospital Brisbane and Mater Hospital Brisbane, Australia, between July 2012 and May 2015.
The primary outcome measures were nutritional intake, plate waste, patient satisfaction, and patient meal costs.
Independent samples t-tests and χ2 analyses were conducted between pre and post data for continuous data and categorical data, respectively. Pearson χ2 analysis of count data for sex and reasons for plate waste for data with counts more than five was used to determine asymptotic (two-sided) significance and n-1 χ2 used for the plate waste analysis. Significance was assessed at P<0.05.
This study reported an increased nutritional intake, improved patient satisfaction, and reduced plate waste and patient meal costs with room service compared to a traditional foodservice model. Comparison of nutritional intake between a traditional foodservice model (n=85) and room service (n=63) showed statistically significant increases with room service in both energy (1,306 kcal/day vs 1,588 kcal/day; P=0.005) and protein (52 g/day vs 66 g/day, P=0.003) intake, as well as energy and protein intake as a percentage of requirements (63% vs 75%; P=0.024 and 65% vs 85%; P=0.011, respectively). Total mean plate waste decreased from 29% (traditional foodservice model) to 12% (room service) (P<0.001). Patient satisfaction ratings indicated improvement with room service across all Press Ganey meal scores: 68th to 86th percentile overall; 64th to 95th percentile for “quality of food”; and 60th to 99th percentile for “flavor of food.” Evaluated during comparable times of the year, patient meal costs decreased by 15% with room service.
A patient-centered foodservice model, such as room service, can improve patient nutritional intake and enhance patient satisfaction in a budget constrained health care environment.
•The paper is based on a large-sample nationwide survey in Chinese universities.•Plate waste phenomenon is very common in Chinese universities.•Chinese students waste less food than their peers in ...western universities.•Food waste of university students varies with different characteristics.•Factors that affect university students’ food waste are multidimensional.
Based on the questionnaires of 9192 students, we found 74% of them have generated plate waste in university canteens and food waste amounted to 61.03 g per student per meal, of which the largest percentage comprised of wheat (25.78%), rice (20.36%), and vegetables (18.61%). Also, this paper found that the factors that affected university students’ food waste generation are multidimensional, including individual-level and family-level characteristics, catering features, and regional locations. In this study, eight factors impacted both indicators of plate waste. Specifically, females wasted more food than males. Education helps in reducing food waste. Bad daily waste habits could exacerbate food waste. The improvement of family economic conditions encourages food waste. Relative to eating alone, dining together with peers caused more serious food waste. The greater the time pressure, the more serious is the food waste. The higher the satisfaction of food taste, the less is the food waste. Compared with students from the north of China, food waste among students in the south is more serious. To reduce plate waste in university canteens, it is recommended that university decision-makers and canteen managers attach great importance to food waste of Chinese university students, by introducing targeted measures to reduce food waste, such as finding effective ways to reduce staple food and vegetable waste, introducing differentiated policies for university students with different individual-level and family-level characteristics, and reducing plate waste caused by unfavorable catering characteristics.
•A first empirically determined understanding of restaurant food waste in China.•In total 3557 tables in 195 restaurants in four case Chinese cities covered.•China’s per capita restaurant food waste ...already not far from western countries.•Food waste varies by consumer groups, restaurant categories, and meal purposes.•Empirical data help set targeted interventions and benchmark reduction targets.
Consumer food waste has attracted increasing public, academic, and political attention in recent years, due to its adverse resource, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts. The scales and patterns of consumer food waste, especially in developing countries, however, remain poorly understood, which may hinder the global effort of reducing food waste. In this study, based on a direct weighing method and a survey of 3557 tables in 195 restaurants in four case cities, we investigated the amount and patterns of restaurant food waste in China in 2015. Food waste per capita per meal in the four cities was 93g, consisting mainly of vegetables (29%), rice (14%), aquatic products (11%), wheat (10%), and pork (8%). This equals to approximately 11kg/cap/year and is not far from that of western countries, although per capita GDP of China is still much lower. We found also that food waste per capita per meal varies considerably by cities (Chengdu and Lhasa higher than Shanghai and Beijing), consumer groups (tourists higher than local residents), restaurant categories (more waste in larger restaurants), and purposes of meals (friends gathering and business banquet higher than working meal and private dining). Our pilot study provides a first, to our best knowledge, empirically determined scales and patterns of restaurant food waste in Chinese cities, and could help set targeted interventions and benchmark national food waste reduction targets.
•The average plate waste of Beijing university students is 73.7 g/cap/meal.•Grade level and financial condition significantly related to plate waste.•Dietary preference and personal appetite are ...first considerations when ordering food.•Guilt and considering saving food a positive lifestyle result in waste reduction.•The environmental footprints caused by plate waste were considerable.
Food waste in China has gained increased attention in recent years due to its rising quantity and adverse environmental, economic, and societal impacts. As university students are an indispensable part of Chinese society and will become the backbone of China’s future sustainable development, their dietary habits and food-wasting behaviors are of both societal and scientific relevance. In this study, we combined direct weighing, questionnaire surveys, and regression analysis to quantify the plate waste of university students in Beijing and identified key influencing factors, based on 551 observations from 6 sample universities. We also evaluated the environmental impacts of university plate waste from the perspective of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and ecological footprints. The results showed that the average plate waste generated by university students in Beijing was 73.7 g/cap/meal in 2018, with staple foods and vegetables contributing the most. There were apparent correlations between plate waste and both grade level and financial condition: lower educational levels and higher disposable incomes both led to more food waste. Male students wasted significantly less staple food than female students. Students’ self-report difficulty of avoiding waste significantly related to plate waste. Dietary preference and personal appetite were prominent considerations when students ordered food, corresponding to problems in food quality and quantity at university canteens. Attitudes most likely to reduce plate waste included a sense of guilt and considering saving food a positive lifestyle. The estimated annual environmental footprints caused by plate waste were considerable, mainly deriving from staple foods and meats.
Tourists bite off more than they can chew at hotel breakfast buffets. Food waste from hotel buffets means unnecessary food cost for hotels as well as an unnecessary burden on the environment. The ...present study measured food waste at a hotel breakfast buffet and identified the following guest and breakfast characteristics as being significantly associated with higher plate waste: more children in the guest mix, more Russians and less Austrians or Germans, fewer hotel guests in the breakfast buffet area as well as more buffet stations being set up. These insights contribute to knowledge on environmental sustainability in tourism, pointing to interesting market segments for targeting in high demand periods as well as promising target segments for interventions (e.g., families) and indicate that simple measures such as rearrangements of the breakfast room may reduce food waste.
•We study the impact of a food waste reduction campaign in a university dining hall.•Plate waste was sorted and weighed in treatment and comparison sites.•The campaign resulted in a modest yet ...insignificant reduction in food waste.•However, the campaign affected student attitudes and beliefs related to food waste.
The foodservice industry generates food waste by disposing of unserved food in the kitchen as well as uneaten food from consumers’ plates. In all-you-care-to-eat dining settings, such as university dining halls or buffet-style restaurants, food waste can be problematic because there is little monetary incentive to take less food. In addition, university dining facilities primarily serve young consumers who tend to be more wasteful than the average adult, further increasing the likelihood of waste. Appeals to money-saving have generally been identified as the best motivator to reduce consumer food waste; however, alternative motivators are needed when the quantity of food and its associated cost are not directly linked in all-you-care-to-eat settings. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a food waste reduction campaign in a university dining hall. Consumer plate waste was collected, sorted, and weighed in a treatment and comparison dining hall for a semester to assess the impact of the campaign on the quantity and type of food waste. Results reveal that the campaign had a modest, though insignificant, impact on waste behavior, but there were changes in students’ beliefs related to food waste, which may be an important first step to achieving behavioral change.
Background: The Automated Self-Administered 24-hour Recall (ASA24), a freely available Web-based tool, was developed to enhance the feasibility of collecting high-quality dietary intake data from ...large samples.Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the criterion validity of ASA24 through a feeding study in which the true intake for 3 meals was known.Design: True intake and plate waste from 3 meals were ascertained for 81 adults by inconspicuously weighing foods and beverages offered at a buffet before and after each participant served him- or herself. Participants were randomly assigned to complete an ASA24 or an interviewer-administered Automated Multiple-Pass Method (AMPM) recall the following day. With the use of linear and Poisson regression analysis, we examined the associations between recall mode and 1) the proportions of items consumed for which a match was reported and that were excluded, 2) the number of intrusions (items reported but not consumed), and 3) differences between energy, nutrient, food group, and portion size estimates based on true and reported intakes.Results: Respondents completing ASA24 reported 80% of items truly consumed compared with 83% in AMPM (P = 0.07). For both ASA24 and AMPM, additions to or ingredients in multicomponent foods and drinks were more frequently omitted than were main foods or drinks. The number of intrusions was higher in ASA24 (P < 0.01). Little evidence of differences by recall mode was found in the gap between true and reported energy, nutrient, and food group intakes or portion sizes.Conclusions: Although the interviewer-administered AMPM performed somewhat better relative to true intakes for matches, exclusions, and intrusions, ASA24 performed well. Given the substantial cost savings that ASA24 offers, it has the potential to make important contributions to research aimed at describing the diets of populations, assessing the effect of interventions on diet, and elucidating diet and health relations. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00978406.
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