The Carbon Footprint of Catering Industry Food Waste: A Beijing case study

Zhang, Dan; Shengkui, Cheng; Liwei, Gao; Liu, Xiaojie; Cao, Xinwu; Liu, Yao; Bai, Junfei; Xu, Shiwei; Wen, Yu; Qi, Qin

doi:10.5846/stxb201504150769

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Food waste means not only the waste of food itself, but also an inefficient and wasteful input of the water, land, and other resources needed to produce the food. Therefore, food waste not only consumes global resources [11][12][13], but also contributes to severe resource and environmental pressures [14][15][16]. Various resources are used for the production of food, so the waste of food also means the loss or waste of those input resources, like land resources and water resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Consumer Perception on Food Waste Behavior of Urban Households in China

Zhang

Cheng

2020

Sustainability

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Food waste has become a global problem, causing widespread concern in all sectors of society. Many scholars and institutions have researched this issue from different perspectives, but theoretical and empirical research on food waste from the perspective of consumer perception is still limited. Therefore, this study constructs a theoretical framework based on food waste behavior of households and empirically analyzes the effect of consumer perception on food waste by 273 Chinese urban households eating at home. The reliable urban household food waste data are based on a combination of household questionnaire surveys, bookkeeping surveys, weighing surveys, and semi-structured interviews in 2018. The survey site is Zhengzhou City in Henan Province. The results show that the higher urban household consumer perception positive index, the smaller the amount of food waste per capita per meal, and the higher urban household consumer perception negative index, the greater the amount of food waste per capita per meal. These results suggest consumer perception affects urban household food waste behavior significantly. We need to encourage consumers to form a joint effort to change consumer perception about food waste in order to reducing food waste.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Consumer Perception on Food Waste Behavior of Urban Households in China

Zhang

Cheng

2020

Sustainability

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“…The research results on the carbon footprint of food waste show that the raw material production stage has the highest carbon emissions, followed by the transportation stage, then the food waste preparation stage, and finally the food disposal stage. The view that the Raw Material Production Stage has the highest carbon emissions has gained some consensus among scholars [11,67,68]. Research on the carbon footprint of food waste has yielded differing perspectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies suggest that the transportation stage has a significant impact on the carbon footprint of food waste due to the substantial fuel consumption and carbon emissions involved in transporting food from production to consumption locations [69,70]. On the other hand, other studies take an opposing view, suggesting that the transportation stage accounts for a smaller proportion of the overall carbon footprint of food waste compared to other stages [11,38,68]. In this study, we align with the former perspective, which suggests that the transportation stage contributes significantly to the carbon footprint of food waste.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Household Food Waste Reduction for Carbon Footprint Mitigation: A Case Study in Shanghai, China

Liu,

Shang,

Liu

2023

Foods

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With the steady growth of the global population and the accelerated urbanization process, the carbon footprint resulting from food waste has a significant impact on the environment and sustainable development. Considering Shanghai’s significance as a major urban center in China and a global hub for economic and cultural activities, this study primarily aims to accurately estimate household food waste generation and calculate the carbon footprint related to edible food waste. It analyzes the factors influencing household food waste generation and reviews the anti-food waste-related policies at both the national and Shanghai regional levels. The study reveals that although the Shanghai municipal government attaches great importance to the issue of food waste, the current policies mainly focus on the catering industry, and there is still a need for further strengthening measures to address food waste at the household level. In Shanghai, the per capita daily food waste generation is 0.57 kg, with 43.42% being edible food waste, contributing to a per capita daily carbon footprint of 1.17 kgCO2eq. Employing the logistic regression analysis to scrutinize the characteristics of the respondents, it is ascertained that education level and annual household income significantly influence food waste generation. In addition, excessive food quantities and expiration dates lead to high-frequency food waste. The culmination of this study is the formulation of a series of pragmatic and impactful policy recommendations aimed at curbing the carbon footprint that stems from food waste.

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“…All raw ingredients were classified into one of 18 types: alcohol, aquatic, beef, dairy, egg, fruit, fungus, lamb, legume, maize, nut, oil, pork, poultry, rice, seasoning, vegetable, and wheat. This approach was adopted in order to use China-specific emission factors for certain food types based on a Beijing food waste carbon footprint study 26 . The sources of other emission factors, assumptions of energy intensity for food processing, transport modes and distances, and waste management emissions specific to Macau were documented in the emissions data files which are available in the Supplementary Information .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-driven decarbonisation pathways for reducing life cycle GHG emissions from food waste in the hospitality and food service sectors

Cheng

Leong

2023

Sci Rep

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The Hospitality and Food Service (HaFS) sectors are notoriously known for their contribution to the food waste problem. Hence, there is an urgent need to devise strategies to reduce food waste in the HaFS sectors and to decarbonise their operation to help fight hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and mitigate climate change. This study proposes three streams to decarbonise the staff cafeteria operation in an integrated resort in Macau. These include upstream optimisation to reduce unserved food waste, midstream education to raise awareness amongst staff about the impact of food choices on the climate and health, and finally downstream recognition to reduce edible plate waste using a state-of-the-art computer vision system. Technology can be an effective medium to facilitate desired behavioural change through nudging, much like how speed cameras can cause people to slow down and help save lives. The holistic and data-driven approach taken revealed great potential for organisations or institutions that offer catering services to reduce their food waste and associated carbon footprint whilst educating individuals about the intricate link between food, climate and well-being.

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The Carbon Footprint of Catering Industry Food Waste: A Beijing case study

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

The Effect of Consumer Perception on Food Waste Behavior of Urban Households in China

The Effect of Consumer Perception on Food Waste Behavior of Urban Households in China

Exploring Household Food Waste Reduction for Carbon Footprint Mitigation: A Case Study in Shanghai, China

Data-driven decarbonisation pathways for reducing life cycle GHG emissions from food waste in the hospitality and food service sectors

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