An Evaluation of Food Waste in the Hospitality Industry

This essay critically evaluates the impact of food waste in restaurants on the hospitality industry, focusing on cost implications, environmental concerns, and customer satisfaction. It highlights the significance of understanding customer preferences and implementing strategies to minimize waste, such as waste management teams, employee training, and menu adjustments. The essay emphasizes the importance of recycling, reducing portion sizes, and promoting awareness among customers and staff. It also discusses the benefits of waste reduction, including increased profit margins, improved service quality, and a positive impact on the environment. The essay draws on various sources to support its arguments and suggests practical steps that restaurants can take to mitigate food waste and meet customer needs effectively. The essay concludes by underscoring the role of restaurants like Gastronomy trend Jimmy Spices in addressing food waste through waste management, employee training, and customer education. This will help in reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction, and promoting sustainable practices within the hospitality sector.

Essay

“An evaluation of the extent to which Food waste in restaurants has had an impact on the
hospitality industry. Discuss how the industry is working towards developing awareness and
meeting customers’ needs”.
For any business, the ultimate aim is to gain maximum profit and this is possible only
when they understand their customers and provide them with product and services which will
satisfy them. However, it is also important that organizations like Gastronomy trend Jimmy
Spices need to take proper step with the help of which they will be able to reduce the cost which
is incurred by the firm. This is a restaurant which frequently takes feedback and suggestions
from their employees and customers (Betz, Buchli and Müller, 2015). Accordingly, they focus
on developing services which will be helpful in attracting customers and gaining profit. In this
context, there are many areas in which firm can take appropriate step through which cost can be
reduced and profit can be earned. With this respect, food wastage in restaurant is one of the
major issues because of which cost increases. Food service industry can be determined as one of
the most recognizable areas of food waste in the UK. According to a survey, it has been found
that about 27% of the people leave food during end of a meal out. On the daily basis, restaurants
throw tons of food instead there are many people who die because of hunger on same planet.
In accordance with the case, food wastage has high negative impact over the business
operations. It leads to increase cost and it also has negative impact over the environment.
Gastronomy trend Jimmy Spices is one of the fastest growing hotels and in order to reduce the
negative impact, it is important for the firm to make proper step with the help of which profit can
be gained (Papargyropoulou, Lozano and bin Ujang, 2014). Further, environment is highly
effected because of wastage. When food waste is dumped then these are mainly burnt and this
produces smoke as well as negatively affects the air. Moreover, it causes diseases like asthma,
lung cancer, etc. One of the main advantages of reducing wastage is that organization will be
able to increase their profit. In this context, firm can make use of following step through which
they will be able to reduce wastage. First of all, cited firm should develop a waste management
team which will look after the garbage. In a week time, they will make a note of total wastage
which is incurred by the firm during preparing food products. On the other hand, wastage which
is occurred by leaving the food by customers will be noted separately. However, waste which is
made during the process of preparing food is known as pre wastage and which is caused after
consumption is called post wastage (Beretta, Stoessel and Hellweg, 2013).
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There are many issues which are seen in employees because of wastage. It is important
that organization should provide their customers with all the necessary equipment with the help
of which better services can be provided and health can be protected. There are many firms
which throw all their waste at one place or same dustbin. With this respect, there are many
products which can be reused or recycled. When these products are dumped all together, then
they cannot be reused and recycled effectively. It is recommended that organizations should
make or develop their dustbin in such a way that they divide wastage on the basis of recycle,
compost and landfill. Customers who visit the restaurant just order the food or dish which they
want to consume. However, they do not think that they are able to complete it or not. As a result,
food is wasted and it is dumped. In this context, it is important that awareness should be spread
so that they will not waste the food (Katajajuuri, Silvennoinen and Reinikainen, 2014). In this
context, it is also important for the restaurant that they can train their employees accordingly.
There are different departments in a restaurant and among these departments, kitchen staff
prepare food and it causes lot of wastage. It is important that firm should provide all the
necessary equipment so that they will be able to reduce the wastage level. Further, there are
many products in the wastage which can be reused. It is suggested to make the use of the
concepts such as reduce, reuse and recycle. Employees should be trained in such a way that they
can understand the importance of evaluating waste. Before providing training, it is important for
the management to make them understand about the benefits and results (Williamson, Block and
Keller, 2016).
Moreover, the simplest way to sort different waste is by making use of different
containers. It is important to sort wastage which includes paper, glass, organic waste, plastic
bottles, etc. This becomes easy for the employees to measure the weight of wastage.
Management should make sure that employees are provided with protective cloths and
equipment. It includes gloves, protective masks, goggles, etc. In addition to this, all the rules
should be mentioned about restaurant operations in the employee's handbook. Further,
organizations can make the use of different ideas through which they will be able to reduce the
wastage (O’Donnell, Deutsch and Katz, 2015). In this context, first of all, firm should frequently
change their menu. Dish on which high amount of wastage occurs, size of that dish should be
reduced. Further, all the food products should be identified which have the most leftover.
Quantity of such products should be reduced. This will improve the quality of food product and
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will also reduce wastage. In addition to this, cost of the product will also be minimized and this
will be helpful in attracting customers (Liu, Lundqvist and Gustafsson, 2013). Further,
employees should give suggestions to the customers while choosing the food product as workers
know how many people will be able to eat the food product which is ordered.
There are many cases in which customers order and fail to complete the food. This results
in the wastage of food. Many food products go in waste as customers do not prefer to consume
those items. So, it is important that before preparing the dish, general product which are provided
as complementary to the customers should be given only when it is confirmed for them so that it
may not go waste. Employees should be educated through proper training and proper knowledge
regarding the rules which are needed to be followed in bar and kitchen (Neff, Spiker and Truant,
2015). Moreover, organizations should invest on the plates which are used to provide food to the
customers. When size of plates provided to the customers are small then amount of wastage will
become less. In addition to this, it is important that organization takes proper measures so that
they can preserve vegetables and fruits. Management should have sustainable containers so that
they will be able to provide healthy food to the service users. In this context, it is suggested that
food which are stored in warehouse and fridge should be regularly rotated. Daily record should
be kept so that amount of inventory which is used can be determined.
This will be helpful in knowing the amount of inventory which will be required for the
whole month. This will enable to reduce wastage effectively and efficiently (Papargyropoulou,
Wright and Ujang, 2016). Organization should have a proper system which will enable to recycle
all types of wastes. According to a survey, it is found that average restaurant in a year develops
more than 50 tons of wastage. Mainly, food wastes are organic and these are recyclable. In this
context, cans, plastics, bottles, etc. can be recycled or can be reused. Further, restaurant can also
make a contract with local organization which will enable to recycle the waste products. It is also
suggested that organizations should make use of products which are made up of recycle
materials. This way, firm will be able to support the environment (Betz, Buchli and Müller,
2015).
Awareness and training to employees are very helpful in reducing wastage. In addition to
this, it is important that organization needs to provide their employees all types of equipment
with the help of which they will be able to make the proper utilization of resources. Waste which
is dumped by restaurant causes various diseases to animal who eat it and there are many cases
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according to which it has been found that in order to fill the stomach, poor people eat from
garbage. This results in serious issues to those people and if the waste is burnt then it creates
smoke which affects environment and this also causes different types of diseases
(Papargyropoulou, Lozano and bin Ujang, 2014). In order to provide better services to the
customers, it is important that management should make sure that they save money and this is
possible when they reduce cost by taking appropriate steps. When firm saves money by reducing
the cost from wastage then they will be able to make investment on other areas like conducting
research and surveys. As it was discussed above, the ultimate aim of any organization is to gain
maximum profit (Beretta, Stoessel and Hellweg, 2013). This is possible when they satisfy their
customers. In order to do it effectively, research and survey enable to understand the taste as well
as preference of customers and accordingly, products as well as services can be developed.
However, it is possible only when organization will save money. Better services can be provided
to the customers and this will enable to attract more of them.
Employees are the face of organization and it is important for the management to provide
them with proper training so that they will be able to render better services to the customers.
Most of the wastage can be reduced if employees are properly trained (Katajajuuri, Silvennoinen
and Reinikainen, 2014). When workers within restaurant are trained then they will be able to
provide information to their customers to select the amount of food which should be taken by
them. Most of the customers are not aware regarding the negative impact of food wastage on
them. From this, it can be stated that restaurants like Gastronomy trend Jimmy Spices should
have a team which will look after the amount of wastage which is caused by them and their
customers. This will be helpful in purchasing the total amount of materials which are used to
develop different types of dishes. Day to day monitoring will enable to list out the appropriate
steps which can be taken to support organization by reducing cost. Further, waste which has
incurred should be divided according to usability. There are many products that are dumped and
these products can easily be reused or recycled (Williamson, Block and Keller, 2016). When
these types of measures are taken then organization will be able to reduce wastage and support
environment.
There are many diseases which are caused by dumping and burning of these wastes.
Maximum wastage which is occurred is while preparing the food and management of restaurant
should be very careful about that. Further, it needs take appropriate steps through which it can be
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reduced the wastage. According to a survey, it has been found that about 45% of waste is
incurred by food preparation, 34% waste is occurred from customer’s plate and about rest 21%
happens because of spoilage. In order to reduce the spoilage, organization should make the use
of refrigerators by which fruits and vegetables can be preserved effectively. Further, in order to
reduce wastage from customer’s plate, proper information should be provided regarding the
amount of food which should be ordered (O’Donnell, Deutsch and Katz, 2015). Moreover,
product which will usually create huge wastage should be provided to the customers in small
quantity. Through this way, firm will be able to provide their customers with better services and
thus, wastage can also be reduced effectively as well as efficiently.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beretta, C., Stoessel, F. and Hellweg, S., 2013. Quantifying food losses and the potential for
reduction in Switzerland. Waste management. 33(3). pp.764-773.
Betz, A., Buchli, J. and Müller, C., 2015. Food waste in the Swiss food service industry–
Magnitude and potential for reduction. Waste Management. 35. pp.218-226.
Katajajuuri, J. M., Silvennoinen, K. and Reinikainen, A., 2014. Food waste in the Finnish food
chain. Journal of Cleaner Production. 73. pp.322-329.
Liu, J., Lundqvist, J. and Gustafsson, J., 2013. Food losses and waste in China and their
implication for water and land. Environmental science & technology. 47(18). pp.10137-
10144.
Neff, R. A., Spiker, M. L. and Truant, P. L., 2015. Wasted Food: US Consumers' Reported
Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors. PloS one. 10(6). pp.e0127881.
O’Donnell, T. H., Deutsch, J. and Katz, S. H., 2015. New sustainable market opportunities for
surplus food: A food system-sensitive methodology (FSSM). Food and Nutrition Sciences.
6(10). pp.883.
Papargyropoulou, E., Lozano, R. and bin Ujang, Z., 2014. The food waste hierarchy as a
framework for the management of food surplus and food waste. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 76. pp.106-115.
Papargyropoulou, E., Wright, N. and Ujang, Z., 2016. Conceptual framework for the study of
food waste generation and prevention in the hospitality sector. Waste Management.
Reynolds, C. J., Mirosa, M. and Clothier, B., 2016. New Zealand’s Food Waste: Estimating the
Tonnes, Value, Calories and Resources Wasted. Agriculture. 6(1). pp.9.
Williamson, S., Block, L. G. and Keller, P. A., 2016. Of Waste and Waists: The Effect of Plate
Material on Food Consumption and Waste. Journal of the Association for Consumer
Research. 1(1). pp.147-160.
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