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Abstract

Since food waste valorisation measures, like energy recovery, have limited possibilities to fully recover the resources invested in food production, there is a need to prevent food waste. Prevention is most important at the end of the value chain, where most sub-processes have already taken place, like in catering facilities. In Sweden, the public catering sector serves a large number of meals through municipal organisations, including schools, preschools and elderly care homes. Many of these organisations quantify food waste, but since Sweden has 290 municipalities with a high degree of independence, the possible variation is significant. This study therefore investigated how food waste is quantified, in order to help formulate a national standard for food waste quantification.Mapping of food waste quantification practices was conducted using a questionnaire and follow-up telephone calls, achieving a response rate of 93%. Of the 290 Swedish municipalities, 55% replied that they quantify food waste on central level. The most common practice at present is to quantify plate- and serving waste from school lunches during two weeks per year, and to compile waste data in spreadsheets and compare the values against the number of plates used, giving a result in grams per portion served. There are many similarities between municipalities, so there is great potential to implement a common standard that many municipalities already fulfil. This is important in order to gain acceptance and fast implementation, thereby speeding up the process of establishing a benchmark for food waste in the Swedish public sector catering sector.

Keywords

Food waste; School; Preschool; Elderly care; Canteens; Municipalities

Published in

Resources, Conservation and Recycling
2018, volume: 137, pages: 191-199

SLU Authors

Associated SLU-program

Food Waste

Global goals (SDG)

SDG2 Zero hunger
SDG12 Responsible consumption and production

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Environmental Engineering
Environmental Management

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.06.013

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/95571