Rice vs. Wheat: Does staple food consumption pattern affect food waste in Chinese university canteens?

Qian, Long; Feng, Lu; Liu, Hongbo; Wang, Ling-en; McCarthy, Breda; Jin, Shaosheng

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105902

Cited by 34 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Unfortunately, owing to difficulties encountered in Henan Province, we dropped the data from Henan. Thus, 29 universities in 29 provinces were studied, covering most of mainland China, which is in line with of Qian et al [16] (Figure 1). Two issues had to be addressed to obtain accurate food waste data.…”

Section: Data Sources and Collectionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…To date, food diaries and second-hand data methods [27], visual estimation [33], self-report [34], the photography method [18], and the direct weighing methods have been used [17,39]. The direct weighing method is more objective, accurate, and reliable than the others [16,45]. Thus, the direct weighing method was adopted in this study, although it is more time-consuming and labor-intensive.…”

Section: Data Sources and Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Italy [14], South Korea [15], and other developed countries, but few in emerging countries such as China [16,17]. Hence, this study aims to investigate the food wastage of Chinese youth to enrich studies in this field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consistent with the existing literature, this study uses university students to represent young people. Per the latest data from the Ministry of Education of China (MEC), there are currently 2956 universities/colleges in mainland China, and the number of university students nationwide reached 37.535 million in 2019 [16]. Given the massive scale, it is imperative to elucidate the influential factors affecting the cohort's food consumption behavior before discussing food waste reduction policies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are the Slimmer More Wasteful? The Correlation between Body Mass Index and Food Wastage among Chinese Youth

et al. 2022

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With the economic growth and living standard improvement, food waste has become increasingly common among Chinese youth. To test whether body size affects the food waste performance of youth, we examined university students as representative of the Chinese youth and conducted a large-sample survey in 29 universities across 29 provinces. Based on 9192 questionnaires collected from Chinese college canteens, we found that body size was correlated with food waste. The smaller the body mass index (BMI) value, the higher the likelihood of plate waste, the higher the amount of waste, and the higher the ratio of food waste. Heterogeneity analyses revealed that BMI exerted a more significant impact on males than females, as well as a more substantial impact on northerners than southerners. Robust tests using other proxies to measure body size, robust regressions based on the new adjusted samples, and robust tests with an instrumental variable to overcome the endogenous issue suggested that the slimmer participants tended to be more wasteful. Hence, this study confirms that the slimmer youth tend to leave plate waste and waste more food per capita per meal. This study is the first attempt to analyze food wastage from the perspective of BMI in China to our best knowledge, and it provides a unique viewpoint for understanding young people’s food wastage.

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Section: Data Sources and Collectionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Data Sources and Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are the Slimmer More Wasteful? The Correlation between Body Mass Index and Food Wastage among Chinese Youth

et al. 2022

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“…For brevity, a culture of making a gelatinized semi-solid paste from these grains and tubers, which are consumed with locally prepared soups by households across the country, is widespread [ 20 , 55 ], and this is consumed more than once a day. This influence of food culture is also documented in various studies in China [ 38 , 72 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Changing Food Consumption Patterns and Land Requirements for Food in the Six Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria

Chiaka

Zhen

Xiao

2022

Foods

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Research on food consumption in Nigeria has mainly focused on food intake, household diversity, and purchasing power. We investigated a knowledge gap for food consumed by households and the land requirements for food resulting from household consumption patterns. The food consumed and the household size determine the land requirement for food. Therefore, a quantity-based analysis and a land demand methodology were applied to derive household food quantity and land requirements for food respectively. The results show that a greater percentage of household income is spent on cereals and starchy roots as the main source of calories and that cowpea is a secondary food option for households. In addition, households are changing their dietary intake from rice to maize and rice to cassava and yams as a cheaper alternative and experts’ measurements of food security at the household level indicates that households in our study are moderately food insecure. Other findings showthat the country’s specific and per capita land requirements for food have gradually increased between 2000 and 2018. Across the six geopolitical zones, Northern regions with higher populations have high land requirements for food, especially for rice and maize (cereals), while Southern regions have high land requirements for cassava and yams (starchy roots) due to their respective consumption and household sizes. In addition, from our study, the land requirements for food show the actual cropland area of South South fed 5000 households. Consequently, a scenario analysis shows that the land requirements for food in our study exceeds the entire geographical area of Nigeria. Therefore, continued population growth without improved living standards and adequate food production output per hectare will further exacerbate food insecurity and land shortage in Nigeria.

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Toward food waste reduction at universities

Filho

Ribeiro

Setti

et al. 2023

Environ Dev Sustain

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Food waste is a serious problem, which undermines the achievement of many sustainable development goals (SDGs), despite their consideration in the agendas of many countries and companies. Notoriously, food waste (FW) causes different kinds of pollution that affect public health and social justice, while contributing to economic losses. This waste phenomenon has causes, drivers, and impacts that require rigorous assessments and effective approaches to mitigate its noxious effects, which are a serious concern for universities. Within these institutions, reducing food waste becomes a circular economy strategy, which is being utilized to assist in promoting sustainable development. However, there is a need for urgent attention to the specific causes of food waste and for consistent actions to reduce it, while boosting awareness in the campus community and triggering a change in students’ eating habits. The purpose of this study is to analyze what can be done to reduce the levels of food waste at universities. To achieve this, a review of the theme’s state of the art, which is inclusive of an overview of food waste production at universities around the world, is presented. The study employed a qualitative methodology where a comprehensive review of the literature and case studies analyses from selected world regions were considered. The data indicate that a broad variance exists in producing food waste among universities, from 0.12 to 50 kg/capita/day. More factors influence the problem (e.g., gender, age, season, consumer behavior), as well as strategies to solve and prevent it (e.g., composting, recycling, new designs of packages, trayless meals, education), and benefits leading toward food waste reductions from 13 to 50%. Also, four priority actions were identified to reduce food waste at universities, and these consist of planning and awareness, food preparation and storage, services, and direct waste reuse. With appropriate adaptations, these recommended actions should be deployed as means for reducing food waste at universities around the world, while expanding learning and education in sustainability.

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Rice vs. Wheat: Does staple food consumption pattern affect food waste in Chinese university canteens?

Cited by 34 publications

References 59 publications

Are the Slimmer More Wasteful? The Correlation between Body Mass Index and Food Wastage among Chinese Youth

Are the Slimmer More Wasteful? The Correlation between Body Mass Index and Food Wastage among Chinese Youth

Changing Food Consumption Patterns and Land Requirements for Food in the Six Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria

Toward food waste reduction at universities

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