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Various researchers have highlighted that the catering industry is responsible for the generation of an appreciable amount of food waste (Gustavsson et al., 2011; Charlebois and Christensen Hughes, 2015). The growth of the catering industry has been on the increase (Ankaralıgil and Özdemir, 2019; Statistics Canada, 2013), and is expected to continue. Therefore, it is inevitable that with growth comes an increase in waste. Understanding food waste is important for policy and operational matters due to its detrimental environmental, social and economic impacts (Caldeira et al., 2019; Papargyropoulou et al, 2016). The EU food service sector produces about 12% of the total amount of wasted food (Fusions, 2016) whilst in the United States this amounts to 25.4% Refed, 2018) of the food supply chain whilst in China this may even rise up to 50% (Wen et al., 2017). The majority of research on food waste in the catering industry has mostly focused on consumer behaviour as well as portion sizes (Bloom, 2010; Ferreira et al., 2013). Yet, little work has been done to investigate the other contributors to food waste such as kitchen management and menu planning (Filimonau et al., 2020; Charlebois and Camp, 2007). Changes in the global economy have led to better cost management within the catering industry which works hand in hand with suppliers to improve the quality of the required products. As a result, there is also an increased interest in reducing avoidable food waste (Edwards and Meiselman, 2005).
Europe is striving towards transforming the way it perceives the economy, prioritising food waste in its document ‘Closing the loop - An EU action plan for the Circular Economy’ (2015). It highlights food waste as being a topic that concerns all Member States and urges action to create awareness and change in citizens’ behaviour. The prevention of food waste also impacts natural resources, and hence the environment. Member States are encouraged to promote a shift in mentality to raise awareness, and to disseminate information on how one can reduce food waste. It also instils the idea that even when the food waste generated is unavoidable, this could still be kept in the ‘loop’ through recycling efforts. Similarly, the 2030 Agenda, agreed upon in the 2015 UN Summit the United Nations set up 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Goal 12 focuses on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns with one of its aims being to cut down by half the global food waste at both the retail and consumer levels by the year 2030 (United Nations, 2015). By understanding the generation typology of catering waste, such information could serve government in designing policy instruments such as legislation governing food waste. It could also serve resturants to better understand their portions and to optimise them accordingly whilst also providing for take-out and donation of surplus food. It could also serve as a basis for understanding the infrastructure required to manage and the costs that could be saved when reducing food waste.
The main aims of this research are to: