Description
Several questions arise when we talk about food waste: economic, moral, environmental and social. Food waste is nowadays a rather pertinent constant public, political and scientific debate. We know that a change in eating habits at the individual and collective level is required. It is important in this context to aim to reduce the food waste resulting from the consumption of meals away from home. To this end, one of the means identified as effective consists in raising awareness and transmitting knowledge to consumers on food waste and the role of individual and collective responsibility in this phenomenon. By reviewing several intervention studies, as well as reports of European organizations, it is concluded that up to half of the food produced is wasted along the entire chain of production and supply, with each European wasting 179kg of food annually. In regards to this, the food service industry is estimated to contribute with about 14% of total food waste currently produced in Portugal. If nothing is done, it is expected that food waste will increase as much as 40% in the coming years, reaching 126 million tons of wasted food by the year 2020 in the European Union alone. Meanwhile, we will remain unable, in contrast, to feed the whole world population. Thus, following the European Parliament's guidelines for reducing food waste, a need for continuous intervention with consumers is pointed out, to raise their awareness and give them the means to help counteract this problem. In view of this, a quasi-experimental study with non-equivalent control group design was planned and carried out during 2015. Its main aim was to make a positive contribution to help reduce the level of food waste generated by workplace canteen and restaurant meals, by trying to change customer behavior. Consequently, we intended to identify the nature and amount of food waste generated in this context; understand what are the motivations that lead the consumer of a mass catering unit to generate food waste, and, finally, determine what type of information should be provided to the customers of these establishments to ensure an effective reduction of food waste. To this, a poster campaign with different messages motivating customers to reduce plate waste was conducted, using the method of weighing the 6 edible food contents leftover in meal trays. This methodology was applied to eight workplace restaurants of the business community of Grand Porto, from March to September 2015. Data collected was statistically analyzed with ANOVA in association with Fisher test and Student t test. It was concluded that there was a significant (at the 10% level) reduction of 26% in the food waste generated by the restaurants where campaigns in two consecutive weeks, with intermediary performance feedback, were conducted, when compared to the baseline level. This study supports therefore the importance of consumer awareness and empowerment to help reduce food waste, as well as the need to apply periodical information campaigns with performance feedback, extended over time, to effectively change food behavior in the long-run.| Period | 1 Feb 2018 |
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| Held at | Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics |
| Degree of Recognition | Master |