Food waste at school. The environmental and cost impact of a canteen meal

García-Herrero, Laura; Menna, Fabio De; Vittuari, Matteo

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2019.09.027

Cited by 75 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Managing the school meal waste issue could resolve several environmental problems [14][15][16]. Garcia-herrero, L Menna, and Vittuari [17] suggested that an improvement in food consumption and waste at school should be studied as it could resolve food waste-related problems. Earlier research [18] has also suggested that around 78% of respondents believed that students engaging more in socializing than in focusing on eating was the reason for food waste on the school campus.…”

Section: Literature Review-waste Of Food In Households and Educationamentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Students Really Cautious about Food Waste? Korean Students’ Perception and Understanding of Food Waste

Islam

2020

Foods

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The amount of food wasted by Korean households is significant and to some extent could be preventable. It is not well illustrated how Korean students perceive food waste and how much they know about the consequences of food waste. This study aimed to examine Korean students’ perception of food waste. Overall, results show that students’ perception of food waste varies in different clusters. Considerate food wasters (cluster 1) are knowledgeable and have much information regarding food waste. This paper suggests that additional information about how to preserve food and about issues related to food wastes, which cause a bigger environmental problem over the long term, could influence the behavior of this cluster, reducing perhaps further food waste. On the other hand, unwitting and ruthless food wasters, who are in clusters 2 and 3, need extra attention. Marketers should initiate educational campaigns to raise awareness of food waste for students and youth. Students who fall under these two clusters may need to pay extra attention to their shopping behavior. They should be more connected to their food, and to their purchase behavior, which may reduce food waste.

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Section: Literature Review-waste Of Food In Households and Educationamentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Students Really Cautious about Food Waste? Korean Students’ Perception and Understanding of Food Waste

Islam

2020

Foods

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“…The specific aim of the review was to identify and classify existing approaches and highlight the main differences among studies, standards, and protocols, as well as outstanding challenges and knowledge gaps. Detailed results and list of sources of this review were presented in two REFRESH reports (De Menna et al 2016;Unger et al 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As far as LCC is concerned, the review identified a widespread array of existing definitions and approaches (De Menna et al 2016). Additionally, only a limited number of case studies were retrieved.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This vast inefficiency has a relevant hidden burden, constituted by the direct and indirect wastage of embedded natural and economic resources consumed within food systems. FAO recently estimated the full cost of food waste at US$2.6 trillion, when also environmental and social impacts are monetized (FAO 2013(FAO , 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food waste prevention is often identified as a crucial strategy to save embedded resources, potentially feed more people, and reduce the environmental pressure of food systems (Kummu et al 2012;FAO 2013;Vittuari et al 2016). Similarly, food waste valorization could allow the recovery of several resources, from animal feed and energy, to fertilizers and high-value compounds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A combined framework for the life cycle assessment and costing of food waste prevention and valorization: an application to school canteens

et al. 2020

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About one third of global edible food is lost or wasted along the supply chain, causing the wastage of embedded natural and economic resources. Life cycle methodologies can be applied to identify sustainable and viable prevention and valorization routes needed to prevent such inefficiencies. However, no systemic approach has been developed so far to guide practitioners and stakeholders. Specifically, the goal and scoping phase (e.g. problem assessed or system function) can be characterized by a large flexibility, and the comparability between food waste scenarios could be not ensured. Within the Horizon2020 project Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain, this study aimed to provide practitioners with guidance on how to combine life cycle assessment and environmental life cycle costing in the context of food waste. Recent literature was reviewed to identify relevant methodological aspects, possible commonly adopted approaches, main differences among studies and standards and protocols, main challenges, and knowledge gaps. Basing on this review, an analytical framework with a set of recommendations was developed encompassing different assessment situations. The framework intends to provide a step by step guidance for food waste practitioners, and it is composed of a preliminary section on study purpose definition, three decision trees-respectively on assessment situation(s), costing approach, and type of study (footprint vs. intervention)-and two sets of recommendations. Recommendations can be applied to all levels of the food waste hierarchy, stating a generic order of preference for handling food chain side flows. This consistent and integrated life cycle approach should ensure a better understanding of the impact of specific interventions, thus supporting informed private and public decision making and promoting the design of sustainable and cost-efficient interventions and a more efficient food supply chains.

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Number of meal components, nutritional guidelines, vegetarian meals, avoiding ruminant meat: what is the best trade-off for improving school meal sustainability?

et al. 2022

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PurposeSchool meals have the potential to promote more sustainable diets. Our aim was to identify the best trade-off between nutrition and the environment by applying four levers to school meals: i) reducing the number of meal components, ii) complying with the French school nutritional guidelines, iii) increasing the number of vegetarian meals, and/or iv) avoiding ruminant meat. MethodsLevers were analyzed alone or in combination in seventeen scenarios. For each scenario, 100 series of 20 meals were generated from a database of 2316 school dishes using mathematical optimization. The nutritional quality of the series was assessed through the Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR/2000 kcal). Seven environmental impacts were considered such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). One scenario, close to series usually served in French schools (containing 4 vegetarian meals, at least 4 ruminant meat-based meals, and at least 4 fish-based meals) was considered as the reference scenario. ResultsReducing the number of meal components induced an important decrease of the energy content but the environmental impact was little altered. Complying with school-specific nutritional guidelines ensured nutritional quality but slightly increased GHGE. Increasing the number of vegetarian meals decreased GHGE (from -11.7% to -61.2%) but decreased nutritional quality, especially when all meals were vegetarian (MAR= 88.1% against 95.3% in the reference scenario). Compared to the reference scenario, series with 12 vegetarian meals, 4 meals containing fish and 4 meals containing pork or poultry reduced GHGE by 50% while maintaining good nutritional quality (MAR=94.0%). ConclusionUpdating French school nutritional guidelines by increasing the number of vegetarian meals up to 12 over 20 and serving non-ruminant meats and fish with the other meals would be the best trade-off for decreasing the environmental impacts of meals without altering their nutritional quality.

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Food waste at school. The environmental and cost impact of a canteen meal

Cited by 75 publications

References 40 publications

Are Students Really Cautious about Food Waste? Korean Students’ Perception and Understanding of Food Waste

Are Students Really Cautious about Food Waste? Korean Students’ Perception and Understanding of Food Waste

A combined framework for the life cycle assessment and costing of food waste prevention and valorization: an application to school canteens

Number of meal components, nutritional guidelines, vegetarian meals, avoiding ruminant meat: what is the best trade-off for improving school meal sustainability?

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