Food waste case study and monitoring developing in Finnish food services

For enhancing food waste weighing measurements we established a platform (Restaurant Forum RF) for different kinds of food service businesses. Our aim was to explore food waste data, but also to develop a monitoring system by increasing our knowledge about the relevant processes and possible internal barriers. We studied food waste generation and origin in the outlets and how to avoid overproduction of food and buffet line waste. During 2016-2017, a number of outlets (n = 51) conducted food waste measurements over a period of two weeks. The businesses that participated included schools, day-care centres and work place and student canteens, which present sectors that mainly serve a lunch buffet. According to our results, 17.5% of all prepared food ended up as waste, which can be further divided into kitchen waste (2.2%), serving waste (11.3%) and customer leftovers (3.9%). On average, 449 g of food was prepared per portion and 78 g of this ended up as waste. We also studied the mechanisms of waste generation, best practices for decreasing food waste, how staff experienced weighing measurements and how measurement systems can be utilized in food service business management.