Food Waste Management — Reducing and Managing Food Waste in Hospitality

Abstract

Food wastage occurs along the entire food chain, from field to table. As much as it is an ethical issue on one hand, it also leads to economic losses and has negative impacts on the environment. Food wastage is, therefore, a significant problem for modern society and the first step in solving it is to identify and understand the reasons for its emergence in each part of the food chain and specific sectors-in this case, the hospitality sector. In order to create practices and recommendations aimed primarily at preventing food wastage, food waste categorization and quantification is essential. This is not that simple, especially in the hospitality sector, given the uneven production of food, and the specific and diverse ways of running a business in this sector. What is certain is that food waste management should be an integral part of management in the hospitality sector, primarily because an effective food safety management system is the starting point for implementing most of the practices that lead to both safe final product and reduction of food waste.

The role of food waste hierarchy as Thai hotels seek to fulfill their corporate social responsibility

“…Prevention aims to reduce the loss of food at its origin. This step is appropriate and effective at reducing as much as possible food waste ( Papargyropoulou et al., 2014 ; Kilibarda et al., 2019 ). The food waste hierarchy provides food management steps to prevent food waste and transform discarded food into other uses.…”

“…Moreover, the hotel sector has often viewed food waste management as a marketing mechanism ( Pearson and Perera, 2018 ). Food has been redistributed by selling it at a lower price, donating it to the underprivileged, reusing it for employee consumption, or as takeaways for pets ( Filimonau and Delysia, 2019 ; Kilibarda et al., 2019 ). Leftover food that can no longer be consumed has also been processed into fish food ( Cheng et al., 2014 ; Wong et al., 2016 ) or used for composting.…”

“…In the food business, CSR actions often deal with food safety, food security, as well as social and environmental sustainability ( Fuchs and Kalfagianni 2009 ). Food waste management is one of the most common CSR concerns of large food manufacturers ( Hartmann, 2011 ), supermarkets ( Devin and Richards, 2018 ), and hotels ( Duursma et al., 2016 ; Kilibarda et al., 2019 ; Wong et al., 2016 ). However, scarce attention has been devoted to devise a model that integrates the concept of waste hierarchy, which focuses on food prevention, with CSR, which deals with stakeholder engagement.…”

How to manage and minimize food waste in the hotel industry: an exploratory research

“…In line with literature (Tatàno et al , 2017; Principato et al , 2018), accurately forecasting of the number of guests and their nationality seems to be fundamental in avoiding food waste at food service as well as implementing transparency and communication outside the unit through efficient communication between local fresh market suppliers and hotels (or restaurants) (Kilibarda et al , 2019). Indeed, informal deals between hotels and local suppliers should be substituted by formal agreements, as the creation of preferential distribution channels could avoid food waste at distribution stage through selling perishable products at a lower price.…”

Food waste management regulation in Indonesia to achieve sustainable development goals

“…One example is sago, which used to be the main staple food in Indonesia. With Indonesia's geographical and climatic conditions, sago can grow and support environmental sustainability in Indonesia [24]. Even though there is no legal basis for food waste management, it does not mean that we are negligent.…”