​PA 8: Food waste prevention in tourism and food preparation

In this pilot action ABF-BOKU, Waste Management Institute, Vienna is determining in which state of the food production in hotels and in event catering food waste occurs and how it can be prevented. Sorting analyses were conducted in 6 hotels and in 4 event catering businesses and trainings will be held and guidelines developed. Austrian Press reported about this pilot action. Read more here where food gets wasted the most and why. 

Aim of this pilot action

​The aim of the pilot action is to reduce the amount of food waste in the selected hotels and catering business and subsequently to provide guidelines for food waste prevention in this business sector. The amount, type and origin of food waste in 6 hotels and 4 catering businesses (in each case 1 – 3 events) in Vienna and Innsbruck before and after the implementation of avoidance measures will be assessed. Based on a first analysis individual strategies for food waste reduction will be developed for each hotel or caterer with the support of the United Against waste (UAW) platform. With the consulting initiative of UAW – called Küchenprofi[t] – each hotel or caterer is professionally coached by independent consultants (e.g. professional chefs) to identify avoidance measures.

Procedure of the sorting analyses

Food waste was divided into 5 distinct areas according to its origin:

1. storage loss – food thrown away from storage (e.g. spoiled products, loss of quality, food exceeding a use-by date)
2. preparation loss – foods discarded during food preparation and cooking (e.g. damaged products, remaining bread crumbs, fruit and vegetable peel, fruit core, egg shells, bones, coffee grounds)
3. kitchen leftovers (surplus production) – prepared food which is never served (e.g. food remaining in the cooking pots, prepared food which was dropped, overcooked or burnt food, excess food)
4. buffet table leftovers (or serving loss) – food remaining from the buffet and serving bowls at the counter
5. plate leftovers – residues left on consumers’ plates (food and drinks)

©ABF-BOKU

Interpretation of the sorting analyses

It was assumed that at the preparation stage the majority of food waste was unavoidable as it comprised of mainly inedible parts of foods such as bones, inedible fruit skins and cores etc.
Except for preparation loss, food waste was further sorted into 8 product groups:

1. meat/fish (meat or fish pieces, sausages, meals mainly consisting of meat or fish such as goulash, sauce bolognaise)
2. vegetables/fruits (separately identified vegetable/fruits, meals mainly consisting of vegetable/fruits such as mushroom sauce, fruit salad)
3. salad (including lettuce leaves for decoration)
4. soups (soups including ingredients such as pancake strips, vegetable pieces, noodles, etc.; dry soup ingredients are allocated to the respective product group)
5. starch accompaniments (e.g. rice, noodles, potatoes, bread, dumplings, couscous, etc.)
6. sweet dishes (e.g. cake, jam, baked pudding, etc.)
7. milk products (e.g. milk, milk drinks, yoghurt, cheese, butter)
8. others (e.g. eggs, sauces, ketchup, non-separable mixed meals such as pizza, spread, tofu, etc.)

Results from the sorting analysis BH ... Hotels (n=6), CA ... Catering (n=3) (©ABF-BOKU)

©ABF-BOKU

Reasons for food waste in hotels and caterings

In Event Catering

• Stage of loss: surplus production (food never served)
• Product groups:
  • starch accompaniments,
  • vegetables/fruits,
  • sweet dishes

Main reasons:

• fewer guests appeared than planned
• planned surplus
• production per guest is too high
• organizer spontaneously changed schedule 
• use of new (not field-tested) recipes

Hotels

In Hotels most food waste comes from buffet table leftovers. Product groups that were found the most amongst the surplus were:

• others (non-separable mixed meals)
• starch accompaniments
• vegetables/fruits. 

Level of efficiancy

The level of efficiency (amount of avoidable food waste in relation to served and consumed meals) has been introduced as a benchmark.
Caterer: 23 – 61 %
Hotels: 7-18 %, 55 %

Impressions sorting analyses – event catering

Impressions sorting analyses – hotels

Environmental Benefits of Pilot Action 8

The goal of the evaluation was to quantify environmental benefits arising from these measures implemented within PA 8 in order to minimise food waste and to improve efficiency. The assessment is limited to data collected during sorting analysis during the pilot phase of the project. Sorting analyses of food waste were conducted before and after the implementation of avoidance strategies in order to evaluate the impact of certain measures. For this pilot action only the global warming potential was assessed. Unavailability of life cycle inventory data for substituted food production did not allow inclusion of further impact categories.

Food waste avoidance measures were implemented in to reduce storage loss, loss during kitchen preparation, unissued meals, leftovers on the plate and from the buffet table. A comprehensive description of individual measure can be found in Hrad (2019). Activities associated to the implementation of the measure itself were assumed to not lead to additional environmental impacts or to be neglectable.

Figure 1 A system overview of pilot measure 8 food waste prevention in tourism and food preparation.

Hotels achieved a saving of 3.3 kg of CO2 e per kg of food waste prevented while catering events achieved a saving of 2.2 kg of CO2 emissions. The higher saving for hotels is associated with the larger amount of meat and fish prevented from waste compared to catering. Almost all of the emission savings are associated with the substitution of food. The replaced waste management only saves less than 0.1%. 

Press conference

First results of the status-quo analyses of food waste generation in the event catering sector were presented by ABF-BOKU during a press conference on 15/01/2018. Three caterers – which have been investigated in the pilot action – as well as one “Küchenprofi[t]”-consultant contributed with individual statements to the discussion on how to reduce food waste from event catering. The findings of the pilot action was received with great interest by the Austrian media