Passively concerned: Horeca managers' recognition of the importance of food waste hardly leads to the adoption of more strategies to reduce it

What shapes food waste behaviors? New insights from a comprehensive action determination model

The sharp increase in food waste poses a serious threat to food security and environmental sustainability. However, most existing studies have investigated the determinants of food waste behaviors in a separate behavioral process without considering the potential impacts of different factors in an integrated process. To narrow this gap, a comprehensive action determination model (CADM), which integrates network embeddedness and incentive measures, was constructed to explore the impact of various determinants in different processes on food waste behaviors, using data collected from 913 residents in eastern China via an online survey. The empirical results showed that environmental concern was the largest positive factor in predicting personal norms (β = 0.80, p < 0.001), followed by network embeddedness. With the habitual process considered, residents with ingrained waste habits were more likely to waste food (β = 0.38, p < 0.001). Moreover, the normative process alleviates behavioral decisions via intentions to reduce food waste. This study confirmed the differences in the situational process and suggested that menu tips increase food waste behaviors, while incentive measures reinforce the influence of intentions on behavior. We therefore address the insufficient ingredients on the effects of different processes on behavior and provide a new perspective for formulating behavioral intervention policies.

Assessment and Solutions to Food Waste at Congress Events: A Perspective of the MagNuS Project

Addressing global food waste is a formidable challenge, requiring comprehensive efforts across the food supply chain, particularly in sectors prone to waste like HoReCa (Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering). In MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) tourism, where gastronomy is a major attraction, overlooked meal services during working meetings contribute significantly to food waste. The MagNuS (Magnitude, Nutritional value, and Sustainability) project aims to assess and address food waste during conference events at the Valencia Conference Center in Spain. This study quantifies waste, categorizes it by food groups, estimates the potential number of individuals that could be fed with discarded food, and assesses energy and nutritional values. Across three events, 104.4 kg of food waste was documented, with cereals having the highest wastage, followed by legumes, fish, and others. Acknowledging potential underestimation due to reliance on cooked values, this study suggests using residues for vermicomposting or composting as sustainable waste management alternatives. These findings have implications for future initiatives, advocating diverse strategies to minimize food waste during congress events, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals. The MagNuS project contributes valuable insights to sustainable practices in MICE tourism, informing policies and operational decisions to reduce the environmental impact of food waste.

Sustainable waste management solutions for the foodservice industry: A Delphi study

Foodservice businesses influence the sustainability of their natural environment by producing significant amounts of waste. Yet, research has, thus far, been dominated by studies that limit their scope to food waste alone. Few studies have taken a broader look at sustainable waste initiatives, including innovative waste processing techniques, with a view to constructing management indicators for foodservices. This study combines management innovation practices related to resource management, waste prevention, processing and disposal techniques, and stakeholder involvement to offer sustainable standards. It primarily adopts the Delphi technique to propose specific solutions pertaining to waste management. Experts from government, industry, and academia reveal that potential waste management initiatives comprise three facets - service, process (operational), and organisational practices and innovations, 15 sub-facets and 41 indicators. This study thus establishes a catalogue of solutions for food, packaging and other 'non-food' waste that foodservice establishments can implement. In addition to its practical implications, an important contribution is its focus on management systems to establish waste management standards for hospitality, food and beverage (F&B) services, restaurants, and non-commercial catering.

Drivers of food waste generation and best practice towards sustainable food waste management in the hotel sector: a systematic review

The growing volumes of food globally are lost or wasted along the entire food chain. However, a high effort in investigating why food waste (FW) occurs remains scattered for each subsector in detail, particularly in the hotel sector. Therefore, this systematic review focuses on FW issues in the hotel sector to identify FW generation drivers and good business practices towards mitigating FW. The review compiled literature from 25 related studies and adopted the PRISMA statement, utilising two leading journal databases: Scopus and Web of Science. This review shows that hoteliers initially feel guilty about wasting food, primarily based on financial loss rather than concerns about the social and environmental footprint. Based on the review, hotel staff from various internal departments faced conflicts between good intentions with reducing FW and the guests' unsustainable food consumption patterns. Within the scope of this review, we suggest that further research is necessary with a focus on procedures and regulations (hotel policy) to encourage guests to minimise plate waste and redistribute unsold hotel food to charities or food banks. Overall, this review offers some interesting guidelines and actionable inferences to reduce FW generation in the hotel sector.

Food Waste Perception of Workplace Canteen Users—A Case Study

Background: Food waste occurs in all stages of the food supply chain, namely in the food service sector. Understanding how much and why food is wasted and whether consumers are aware of it is essential to design effective interventions in this setting. This case study aims to compare the food waste perception by consumers and measure plate waste in a Portuguese workplace canteen in order to recognize if trained consumers can estimate his/her food waste. Methods: Data were collected from 160 users randomly selected attending a workplace canteen during one month. Plate waste was evaluated by the weighing method. Visual estimation was performed by each participant to evaluate food waste perception at the end of the meal. Consumers were also asked about reasons for wasting food. Results: Plate waste was 8.4% for soup, 9.0% for the main course, and 4.0% for dessert. These values follow the same trend of waste perceived by consumers for soup (R = 0.722; p ˂ 0.001), main course (R = 0.674; p ˂ 0.001), and dessert (R = 0.639; p ˂ 0.001), showing a high relation between self-assessment and measured plate waste. Excessive portions (46.1%), dislike of meal flavor (18.6%), cooking method (8.8%), and texture (3.9%) were identified as the main causes for plate waste. Conclusions: Canteen users showed an accurate perception of their plate waste for all meal components. Excessive portions were identified by consumers as the main reason for plate waste.

CoVid Key Figures and New Challenges in the HoReCa Sector: The Way towards a New Supply-Chain

The profound impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global tourism activity and the hospitality industry has rendered statistical approaches on tourism-demand forecasting obsolete. Furthermore, literature review shows the absence of studies on the supply chain in the HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, catering) sector from a sustainability perspective that also addresses economic and social aspects, and not only environmental ones. In this context, the objective of this article is to carry out a prospective analysis on how the changes in the behaviour of consumers during the pandemic and the uncertainties regarding the exit from the health emergency can give rise to social trends with a high impact on the HoReCa sector in the coming years and, specifically, how they will affect the HoReCa supply chain. In the absence of investigations due to the proximity of what has happened, public sources and reports of international relevance have been identified and analysed from the future studies and strategic and competitive intelligence disciplines. The HoReCa sector in Spain has been chosen as field of observation. This analysis draws the future of the HoReCa sector, describes the changes in customer behaviour regarding food and beverages, explains the changes in distribution chains, and reflects on the impact of potential scenarios on the sector. The confluence of all these changes and trends can even configure a new supply chain in the hospitality sector with the emergence of new actors and the increase of access routes to a new final customer for whom security prevails in all its dimensions: physical, emotional, economic, and digital.

HoReCa Food Waste and Sustainable Development Goals—A Systemic View

A significant share of food waste originates in the food services domain and HoReCa sector. Organizational improvements leading to the decrease of food waste and related costs in HoReCa are needed to make progress in this issue. A systems engineering approach was applied to examine the links between food waste generated in the HoReCa industry and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A literature review discovered two dimensions of actions leading to decreasing food waste in HoReCa; i.e., actions triggered by companies and by authorities (e.g., governmental policies). Additionally, customers and society were also considered. A framework is proposed to explicitly illustrate the dependencies of different micro actions devoted to food waste reduction in HoReCa in support of the SDGs. The other dimension of this framework is macro policies and their impact on SDGs. To increase food waste reduction awareness and collaboration, stakeholders on both the macro (launched by authorities for the whole sector) and micro (initiated by single organizations on their own) levels must work together. The results of this research will be useful in coordinating the efforts of all (consumers, HoReCa companies and suppliers, policymakers and administrations on different levels) involved in the supply chain of food production and consumption.

Sustainability-Oriented Innovations in Food Waste Management Technology

Food is essential to our survival, yet the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that about 820 million people were undernourished in 2018. In this context, food waste generation is a particularly salient issue. Wasting food means missing opportunities to feed the growing world population and consuming scarce resources, such as land, water and energy used in the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food. Firms in HORECA (hospitality, restaurant and catering) represent a considerable share of total food waste and, more importantly, are characterized by an overall low sense of awareness about the sustainability-oriented innovation opportunities and challenges of minimizing food waste. This article draws on an in-depth case study to explore the use of technological advancements in downstream value chain. This case study draws on a tech startup providing services for HORECA companies to address a new way for companies to solve the food waste challenge. Adopting technological innovations to quantify and minimize wastage via collaborations with third-party companies can be a strategic and cost-effective way to supplement a company’s open innovation activities.