Introduction to Food Waste

Food waste is defined as a food item or substance that the holder discards, itend to or is required to discards (Priestley, 2016). According to the EU FUSION (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies), food waste also means "...any food or inedible parts of food that removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed..." (Priestley, 2016: 7). In the hospitality industry, food waste has been recognised as a critical issue for global long-term sustainability (Filimonau & De Coteau, 2019). So, it is important for the hospitality industry to implement strategies for food waste prevention.

According to the Waste & Resource Action Programme (2013), within the hospitality and food service sector (HaFS), the cost for food waste was £2.5 million and estimated to become £3 million per annum by 2016. Moreover, only 46 per cent of the waste is recycled with 40 per cent is carbohydrate waste such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes (WRAP, 2013). This suggests that food waste is a critical issue for HaFS sector as it is significantly placing a negative impact on the industry’s financial performance and reputation.

A study by WRAP (2013) showed 1.1 millions of food is wasted by the HaFS industry which was avoidable or could have been eaten. Hence, WRAP introduced a summary of priority food types that can be recycled from each HaFS subsector as the diagram below. Consequently, by preventing this amount of food wasted, it can improve the industry’s financial performance.

As mentioned before in the Food Security section, civilians must have access to sufficient and nutritious food resources. A study by Tielens and Candel (2014) indicated that reducing and reusing food waste possibly have a positive influence on long-term food security. Therefore, by using resources efficiently and support food waste prevention, it possibly increases the accessibility and availability of food products for civilians. Thus, hospitality businesses can support food security in the UK through food waste prevention program.

References

Filimonau, V. and De Coteau, D. A. (2019) "Food waste management in hospitality operations: A critical review". Tourism Management 71, 234-245. [Online] DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2018.10.009

Priestley, S. (2016) Food Waste. House of Commons Library. Briefing Paper No. CBP07552.

Tielens, J. and Candel, J. (2014) "Reducing food wastage, improving food security?". Food & Business Knowledge Platform. The Hauge, The Netherlands. [Online] [Accessed on 14th October 2020] https://knowledge4food.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/140702_fbkp_report-foodwastage_DEF.pdf

WRAP (2013) Overview of Waste in the UK Hospitality and Food Service Sector. HaFS Agreement in taking action on waste. Project code: HFS001-006. [Online] [Accessed on 14th October 2020] http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Overview%20of%20Waste%20in%20the%20UK%20Hospitality%20and%20Food%20Service%20Sector%20FINAL.pdf