Effectiveness of Waste Audit and Waste Management for the Food Companies: A Case Study on Subway

Food waste is a severe issue all around the world. The food and beverage sector in all the countries are now focusing on reducing the volume of waste that generates from raw food, during food preparation, damages during transportation and packing, from the plates of the customers etc. In the times of growing food insecurity, it is highly essential for the global food industry to adopt sustainable measures to reduce the food waste, which also results in loss of high amount of profits due to increased operational cost. Waste audit, and inventory and waste management systems are being implemented in the food sector to track and control the waste types and taking preventive measures accordingly. This research study aims to highlight the effectiveness of the waste audit and waste management system in the food sector of New Zealand, with a particular focus on the Subway, the subs and salad chain. A qualitative study has been conducted on the primary data collected through interview process and it has been found that the volume of waste in Subway is quite high during the regular business months, which increases the revenue loss of the business. Thus, the waste management system has been found to be quite ineffective in Subway. Further recommendations have been provided to address the issue in an effective manner.

Running head: RESEARCH REPORT
Effectiveness of Waste Audit and Waste Management for the Food Companies: A Case
Study on Subway
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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ABSTRACT
Food waste is a severe issue all around the world. The food and beverage sector in all the
countries are now focusing on reducing the volume of waste that generates from raw food,
during food preparation, damages during transportation and packing, from the plates of the
customers etc. In the times of growing food insecurity, it is highly essential for the global food
industry to adopt sustainable measures to reduce the food waste, which also results in loss of
high amount of profits due to increased operational cost. Waste audit, and inventory and waste
management systems are being implemented in the food sector to track and control the waste
types and taking preventive measures accordingly. This research study aims to highlight the
effectiveness of the waste audit and waste management system in the food sector of New
Zealand, with a particular focus on the Subway, the subs and salad chain. A qualitative study has
been conducted on the primary data collected through interview process and it has been found
that the volume of waste in Subway is quite high during the regular business months, which
increases the revenue loss of the business. Thus, the waste management system has been found
to be quite ineffective in Subway. Further recommendations have been provided to address the
issue in an effective manner.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Background of the research...................................................................................................4
1.2 Organizational Context..........................................................................................................4
1.3 Aim and Research question...................................................................................................5
2.0 Literature review........................................................................................................................6
2.1 Inventory and waste management in the food industry.........................................................6
2.2 Food waste management and its importance.........................................................................8
2.3 Food waste in New Zealand................................................................................................10
2.4 Literature gap.......................................................................................................................11
3.0 Methodology............................................................................................................................13
3.1 Research purpose.................................................................................................................13
3.2 Research approach...............................................................................................................13
3.3 Research design...................................................................................................................14
3.4 Research strategy.................................................................................................................14
3.5 Data collection process........................................................................................................15
3.6 Sampling..............................................................................................................................15
3.7 Data analysis process...........................................................................................................16
3.8 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................16
3.9 Limitations of the study.......................................................................................................16
4.0: Research Results and Analysis...............................................................................................17
4.1 Findings...............................................................................................................................17
4.1.1 Primary data findings....................................................................................................17
4.1.2 Secondary data findings................................................................................................20

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4.2 Analysis of findings.............................................................................................................22
5.0: Conclusion and Recommendations........................................................................................24
5.1 Recommendations................................................................................................................24
References......................................................................................................................................26
Appendix........................................................................................................................................31

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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the research
In the food and beverage industry, the role of inventory and waste management is highly
important. The stock of inventories and products is mostly perishable in the food companies and
thus, the processes of inventories and waste management are very different in this industry from
other industries handling large amount of inventories. The level of waste is also high in this
industry as the goods are perishable, which gives rise to the necessity of waste audit for the food
companies. Waste audit is a tool for regulating the usage of resources and inventories of the food
companies and this is important for keeping a check on the food wastage (Papargyropoulou et
al., 2016). This research report explores various aspects of inventory and waste management in
the context of a famous fast food restaurant in New Zealand. The level of food waste is generally
higher in the restaurant industry than in the household sector. Hence, to get an idea about the
issues in the inventory and waste management in the restaurant industry, the research was
conducted, and based on the findings some recommendations are provided to address the issues
and overcome the challenges. The features and effectiveness of waste audit were also explored as
an efficient measure of controlling the level of waste in the restaurants in order to assess its
potentiality to address the issue of inventory and waste management.
1.2 Organizational Context
In a time when a large percentage of the world’s population is suffering from food
insecurity, lack of adequate nutrition and hunger, wastage of food by the food companies as well
as by the customers appears to be a luxury not which every individual can afford (Gundersen &
Ziliak, 2015). Thus, in this awareness, the food companies are now adopting various measures
for regulating and controlling their food waste and resource waste as a part of the inventory and
waste management programmes, among which waste audit is one tool. This research proposal
aims to explore and evaluate the efficiency of waste audit system in implementing an efficient
inventory and waste management system in food companies which is beneficial for not only
reducing operational cost for the companies but also for reducing food waste. To conduct this
study, the researcher chose Subway, the world famous global chain of Submarine sandwiches
(Subs) and salads, operating in New Zealand. Similar to many other countries, New Zealand is

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also facing the issue of food waste. There are over 7% households across New Zealand living
with inadequate food, many food companies are taking measures to implement reduction in their
inventory and waste management, and waste audit is one of those methods (Junn, 2019). Subway
is implementing various measures and through this research, the effectiveness of the waste audit
system will be assessed. Based on the findings, recommendations will be provided to the
organization to improve their system.
1.3 Aim and Research question
The aim of this research project is to investigate and examine the effectiveness of the
waste audit system in implementing an efficient food inventory and waste management system in
Subway, the subs and salad restaurant chain in New Zealand and to recommend ways to improve
the system in order to reduce the food waste even more.
The research questions are:
1) What practices are followed in Subway, NZ under food inventory and waste management
system?
2) How is the performance of waste audit system in Subway? Is there any improvement in
the inventory and waste management due to waste audit system?
3) How to improve the inventory and waste management system in Subway through waste
audit system?

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2.0 Literature review
2.1 Inventory and waste management in the food industry
Inventory and waste management is a very crucial activity in many industries, especially
in the food industry. The restaurant and food industry is considered as one of the biggest
producers of waste. Hence, it is highly important to control the waste generated by the food
industry by exploring the way the waste is generated and how that can be kept at a minimum by
applying inventory and waste management system, which is used for facilitating the waste
control. It has been observed that in Australia, approximately 1.9 million tonnes of commercial
food waste is discarded yearly, and two-thirds of this waste is generated in the food retail sector
and the food and beverage sector (Kibler et al., 2018). One of the major negative implications of
this food waste is the greenhouse gases emitted from the food decomposition in the landfills,
which affects the environment negatively. In Australia, it has been found that these emissions
equal to the emissions from iron and steel production. At the same time, increase in the global
food waste is concerning. Almost one-third of the total production is not consumed, rather it is
discarded (Cerda et al., 2018). The cost of food waste does not only include the harmful
greenhouse emissions from the landfills, but also the transport, water and the production costs.
There are some specific areas for food wastage identified in the food and hospitality
industry. These are: contamination, spillage, food not used within the expiry date, poor quality,
unhealthy food, overstocking and expiry of inventories, unaccounted consumption, damage
during transportation etc. (Sun et al., 2018). All these areas add up and make up significant
amount of food waste affecting the bottom line and profits of the businesses. Thus, producers,
suppliers as well as consumers should come together to reduce and control food waste and
ensure food sustainability and security across the world.
Inventory management is more important than manufacture resilience in controlling the
food waste. International supply chain and its efficiency is highly required to address the food
waste issue. The capability of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 is believed to be dependent on the
processed foods, which are being delivered to different places through the complex and dispersed
global supply chain. As almost one-third of the food production is being wasted across the world
during the supply chain activities. In the developed countries, around half of the total food waste

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occurs after the purchase by the end consumers. Hence, it is important to make the consumers
aware about the food condition and the relevant preparation process, which can facilitate the
efficiency of the inventory and waste management in the food industry (Woolley et al., 2016).
Reverse logistics, that is, backflow supply chain management system is found to be
useful for dealing with returns and waste management of products in the manufacturing sector. It
is good measure for establishing sustainability in the supply chain process. As found from
researches, an efficient reverse logistics system is required in the food industry supply chain due
to the delicate nature of the food products and backward flow of the food packaging and the
materials. This system requires much research work on the existing reverse practices in different
food retail formats to be applied in the food industry in an efficient manner and achieve
sustainability by reducing waste (Vijayan et al., 2014).
In the inventory and waste management system in the food industry, the warehouse size
and infrastructure are very important. The food processing and distribution firms stock a large
amount of different types of food products in the warehouses before supplying to the end
customers and this requires big warehouses, resulting in increasing inventories of fresh and
processed food products, rising management and operation cost and reducing efficiency of the
warehouses. Thus, inventory prediction model can be useful as it gives up to 66.3% accurate
predictions, which can increase the efficiency of the inventory and waste management in the
food industry and supply chain (Liang, 2013).
Back-of-the-house food waste in the food service outlets is another channel in the food
waste process. In a Delish restaurant chain in Canada, it has been observed that relationships
with the suppliers do not contribute much in the food waste. As per the employees, the size of the
portion on the plate is not the reason for food waste. Moreover, as people are becoming more
health conscious, they are avoiding the starched food, which are low cost items for the
restaurants. The chefs are also bound by corporate contracts preventing them from altering menu
and reducing waste. Thus, order shortening is necessary in the food industry to reduce waste
(Charlebois, Creedy & von Massow, 2015).
Some important causes of the food waste in the food supply networks are dearth of
transparency in the demand information, poor quality, process controls, packaging systems, and

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the inefficient shelf-life management and these affect the efficiency of the inventory
management systems (Mena et al., 2014). At the same time, it has been observed that
sustainability in the cold food chain management is not much prevalent across the food industry.
A study on the Indian food industry showed that lack of awareness often results in lack of
sustainable practices, such as, less number of socially responsible activities, fewer initiatives for
reduction in carbon emissions, dearth of training and trained professionals to implement
sustainable practices (Singh & Shabani, 2016). These factors also contribute in the increase in
food waste. In the for-profit division of the hospitality sector of Abu Dhabi, serving style and
timing result in large amount of food waste. It is followed by the type of food served and the
forecasts about the customer foot fall in the restaurants (Pirani & Arafat, 2016). Thus,
sustainability is a major issue in the food industry across the world. Food waste has severe
negative economic, environmental and social impacts on the community and this issue is getting
much bigger over the years and requires swift and immediate action. According to
Papargyropoulou et al. (2016), food provisioning is a good measure in order to regulate and
control food waste and implement efficient sustainable practices.
Gao et al. (2017) compared five different processes for food waste treatment. It has been
found from the study that reduction in food waste is the optimum way for reducing the negative
impact on the environment and implement sustainability. The landfill contributes maximum
amount in the climate change, which is 10 times larger than the other methods of waste treatment
and hence, the advanced and more sustainable technologies are required for enhancing the
sustainability practices in the food industry by overcoming the challenges in food waste and
waste treatment.
2.2 Food waste management and its importance
Food waste management is a crucial part in the food industry for controlling and reducing
the wastes. Various methods are often used for minimizing the food waste, such as the
participatory approach for the employees in the bakery and catering industry and this was found
to be useful for raising awareness and responsibility among the employees about the significance
of food waste reduction and increase the efficiency of the resources in this industry (Strotmann et
al., 2017). Food packaging is also important to reduce food waste in the supply chain network.
Australia’s fresh food produce sector was studied by Verghese et al. (2015), and it was observed

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that efficient packaging can reduce significant amount of food waste by enhancing the protection
of the fresh food products through ventilation and temperature control. Design of distribution
packaging is also significant as that can reduce food damage during transportation and handling.
The home packaging can also reduce food waste by maintaining the correct date labels and
controlling the size of the proportion. According to the authors, the retail ready packaging must
be improved to decrease the food chain in the supply chain network.
The inventory and waste management in the food sector should also focus on identifying
and controlling the invisible food waste for establishing a sustainable food supply chain (Derqui,
Fayos & Fernandez, 2016). Waste of food implies misuse of valuable resources and that has not
only economic impact, but also environmental, social and ethical impact. Economic impact is
measured through visible food waste but the other types of impacts are ignored as the waste is
often invisible. According to the authors, multi-stakeholder collaboration is required to focus on
all types of impact of food waste and regulate that.
Sustainable food security can be achieved through demand control, efficient food supply
chain network and transformation of food system. In the world with growing food insecurity,
malnourishment, hunger and poor health of people, the food production and service companies
should emphasize on achieving these above-mentioned aspects (Garnett, 2014).
In the developing countries of Asia, Taiwan being exceptional, the low income level,
inefficiency in food waste treatment and recycling technology have been contributing in the
growing level of food waste (Thi, Kumar & Lin, 2015). The food companies in the Nigerian food
industry are adopting sustainable and advanced technologies for lowering the food waste in the
country (Oladepo, Ilori & Taiwo, 2014). Hence, the inventory and waste management
technology must adopt sustainable tools and methods to improve their efficiency and reduce the
economic, social and environmental impact by reducing the food waste substantially.
The amount of food waste in America is very high. Up to 40% of the food gets wasted in
their journey from farm to landfill and in the times of rising food insecurity across the world, the
amount of food waste is a big concern. This is worth of USD 165 billion each year and reduction
of food loss by 15% would be enough for feeding more than 25 million Americans where 1 in

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every 6 person faces the challenge of food insecurity (Gunders, 2012). Thus, efficiency of the
inventory and waste management should be increased on an urgent basis.
2.3 Food waste in New Zealand
Food waste is a rising concern in almost all the developed countries and in New Zealand,
it is assumed that the households waste food worth of $750 million annually (Reynolds, Mirosa
& Clothier, 2016). The crisis in the global food security is so severe that according to experts, the
consumers must be educated to lower their food waste generation and at the same time, the
governments should also introduce policies to encourage food saving by the households and
commercial entities. (Odt.co.nz, 2018) reported that on an average, the New Zealanders waste
food worth of $1.8 billion yearly. According to the report, the largest mall of New Zealand,
Sylvia Park creates 600 tonnes of waste each year and half of that is the food waste. These food
wastes are dumped in landfills and that releases methane, which affects the environment
negatively. Another important finding from bin audit shows that in 2014-15, the households of
New Zealand threw away around 3.17 kg of food waste and it came down slightly to 3.15 kg in
2018 (Scoop.co.nz, 2019). It implies that the Kiwis are taking efforts to carb down their food
waste, however, those are not much effective. An online attitudinal study revealed that 66% of
the Kiwis have taken efforts to reduce the food waste in the past two years, and the efforts
include planning the meals efficiently and eating the leftovers. At the same time, it has also been
observed that the food waste reduction campaign resulted in the decrease of food waste by 27%,
which indicated that almost 14000 tonnes of food waste were diverted directly (Scoop.co.nz,
2019).
According to a report by lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz (2019), the Kiwis throw away almost
157,389 tonnes of food yearly and that is worth of $1.17 billion. Among the wastes, bread ranks
first, followed by leftovers, oranges and mandarins, apples, bananas, potatoes , poultry, rice,
lettuce and beef. The Kiwis also throw away 1787 tonnes of cakes annually.

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Figure 1: Top 10 avoidable food types that are wasted in New Zealand
(Source: lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz, 2019)
The Parliament of New Zealand has considered the food waste as a serious matter of concern and
they are taking measures to reduce that. The Environment Committee has been appointed to
explore the issues like the food waste problem, preventing and redistributing food waste
(Parliament.nz, 2018).
2.4 Literature gap
From the above discussion, it can be said that various studies have been conducted to
explore the efficiency and scopes of the inventory and waste management in the food industry
and different measures to reduce the level of waste and achieve sustainability. However, no study

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has focused on the level of waste in the fast food restaurants in the context of New Zealand. The
type of food and service is different in the fast food outlets. These foods are often termed as junk
foods, which are not good for health. As per recent researches, the health conscious customers
have started to avoid unhealthy and high calorific junk foods, which is increasing the level of
waste in these restaurants and food outlets. Furthermore, the role of waste audit was not explored
in any study. Waste audit is being used in different industries and their supply chains, however, it
is not much in use in the food industry and thus, the effectiveness of waste audit in the food
industry was not explored earlier. The junk food industry and delis were not studied earlier in the
light of food waste and inventory and waste management. Hence, through this research, the
researcher attempted to find the impact of waste audit on the regulating and controlling the food
waste in the context of Subway, NZ.

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3.0 Methodology
This section illustrates the methods undertaken to complete the research study on waste
audit and waste management for the food companies, with a specific focus on Subway in New
Zealand. Methodology consists of various aspects, such as, research purpose, research approach,
research design and strategy, collection and analysis process of data, limitations and ethical
considerations of the research (Kumar, 2019). These processes are chosen on the basis of the
nature of the research problem. The methods adopted in this study are explained below.
3.1 Research purpose
Purpose of a research study is of two types, exploratory and explanatory. As stated by
Tetnowski (2015), exploratory research is the one that investigates the topic or subject that is not
clearly defined and hence, the study is conducted to gain better understanding and not conclusive
results. On the other hand, explanatory research examines a problem to get its causes and effects
and explain those on the basis of already established theories (Hollstein, 2014). It is also
followed from the descriptive research. In this study, the research topic aims to investigate the
effectiveness of the waste audit and management in the food industry of New Zealand. Hence,
effectiveness of the systems requires explanation in a much in-depth manner to get a more
precise conclusion to the research issue. Thus, the nature of the issue indicates that the problem
statement should be explained to get more detailed information and understanding on the waste
management processes to achieve enhanced sustainability in the food companies. Therefore,
explanatory research was conducted in this given study.
3.2 Research approach
Research approach describes the basic plan of conducting the research, that is,
identification, collection, analysis and interpretation of information, based on some assumption
(Zalaghi & Khazaei, 2016). The widely used research approaches are inductive and deductive.
As highlighted by Johnston (2014), inductive research is the one in which new theories are
generated from specific data on the research subject, while under deductive approach, the
problem is examined against established theories and generalized conclusion is given on the
basis of the specific data. Thus, it is seen that in the given study, information from a specific
company, that is, Subway, regarding the research issue was gathered and that was examined

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against established theories to get a more detailed knowledge and understanding about the
subject, and hence, deductive research approach was applied in this study.
3.3 Research design
Research design is defined as the framework of processes and techniques that are adopted
in a synchronized and logical manner to address the research objectives (Meyers, Gamst &
Guarino, 2016). Thus, research design provides in-depth insights about how the study should be
conducted by applying a particular research methodology and combining different elements of
the research. The two main types of research design are qualitative and quantitative. While
qualitative research deals with non-numeric data collection and analysis, the quantitative study
deals with numeric data and statistical analysis (Creswell & Poth, 2017). In this given study,
descriptive research design under qualitative study has been adopted as the research topic
entailed a description on the efficiency of the waste audit and other processes under waste
management system in regards to the Subway, New Zealand. The quantitative research designs,
such as, correlational or experimental studies were not adopted as numeric data and
mathematical analysis would not be suitable to evaluate the implementation and evaluation of the
efficiency of the waste management in the food industry of New Zealand.
3.4 Research strategy
As stated by Strang (2015), research strategy presents a step-by-step action plan under a
particular research design to collect the relevant information for the research and analyze those
systematically to answer the research questions. Case study, quantitative survey, qualitative
interviews, ethnography, archival research, grounded theory and, action-oriented research are
some of the most commonly used research strategies. In the following research, case study
research strategy was applied as that was beneficial to narrow down the horizon of the research.
The outcome of case study research is also beneficial to understand the real life implications in
the businesses and formulate practical solutions (Hancock & Algozzine, 2016). Food industry is
a huge one containing a wide variety of food types and restaurant types, thus, to examine the
aspects of waste management for the food companies, narrowing down the area to one specific
type of food and outlet would generate more precise information and outcome. Thus, a Subway
outlet was taken as the case study organization to conduct the research study.

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3.5 Data collection process
Primary and secondary are two types of data used in research studies. Primary data
denotes the information, which is gathered directly from the people associated with or affected
by the research issue. This type of data is collected through interview, survey, observations,
feedbacks, focus group, etc. On the other hand, secondary information denotes that information,
which is obtained from secondary sources, such as, books, journal articles, government reports,
websites and publications, official websites of organizations, and newspaper articles (Johnston,
2017). In this study, the researcher collected primary data to get a more in-depth and
personalized insights regarding the research problem. To collect the information, the researcher
chose the interview process. This is beneficial for collecting qualitative information in regards to
the research topic.
The interview questionnaire contains 6 open-ended questions. The researcher followed
structured interview process as that allowed the researcher to ask the same questions in the same
order to the interview respondents. This is also useful to get the information in a systematic
manner along with the personal perspective on the research issue (Russano er al., 2014)
3.6 Sampling
In primary data collection, sampling is essential. Sample denotes a smaller subset of a
larger population, having the same characteristics. A sample is drawn using an appropriate
sampling technique for collecting relevant data for the study. There are two primary sampling
techniques, probability and non-probability. According to Singh & Masuku (2014), probability
sampling includes the techniques in which each of the sample has equal and random chances of
being chosen. On the contrary, non-probability sampling techniques are those in which the
selection of the samples depend on the rationality and judgment of the researcher and the
samples do not have random and equal chance of being selected. Simple random sampling,
stratified random sampling, cluster sampling, systematic random sampling are some types of
probability sampling, and convenience sampling, purposive sampling, snow ball sampling, quota
sampling etc. are non-probability sampling. In this research paper, the researcher applied
convenience sampling technique, in which the samples are chosen on the basis of convenient
access or proximity (Etikan, Musa & Alkassim, 2016). By applying convenience sampling, the

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researcher selected two individuals of the Subway outlet, a manager and employee, for
conducting the interview process.
3.7 Data analysis process
Qualitative data analysis process was applied in the study to interpret the interview
responses. In the given study, qualitative, that is, non-numeric data was collected through
interview process. Thus, descriptive method under qualitative data analysis process was applied
to interpret the responses of the manager and the employee of Subway. The findings are
dependent on the judgment and rationality of the researchers.
3.8 Ethical considerations
The basic elements of ethical considerations are met in this paper. Firstly, all the
information collected from secondary sources are correctly cited to avoid the issue of plagiarism.
Secondly, as interview process was followed, the researcher took informed consent from the
respondents. The purpose and objectives have been clearly mentioned to the employees before
the interview process. Thirdly, the condition of anonymity was strictly maintained, that is, no
personal information was collected from the employees. Lastly, the information was kept
confidential as per the Data Protection Act and that should remain confident.
3.9 Limitations of the study
Budget and time are two major limitations of this research study. Due to these two
limitations, the researcher collected only primary data for examining the research topic. The
sample size is only 2, and the reasons behind choosing this small sample size are also time and
budget. However, only qualitative information was collected, which could result in biased
outcome of the study. Secondly, only qualitative analysis process has been applied in the study
due to only the qualitative data. However, collection and analysis of quantitative data would
derive more precise outcome.

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4.0: Research Results and Analysis
This chapter presents the overview of the results of the analysis of the data collected and
its implications for the research topic. For the given study on the effectiveness of waste audit and
waste management for the food companies of New Zealand, with a special focus on Subway, the
subs and salad food chain, the researcher collected primary data through interview process.
Secondary information is also collected to support and validate the findings from the primary
data. The research results and their analytical interpretations are presented below.
4.1 Findings
4.1.1 Primary data findings
By applying convenient sampling technique, which is a non-probability sampling
method, the researcher chose 2 people from a Subway outlet, 1 manager and 1 employee, for
collecting primary data. Primary data was collected for the study as it gives a more personalized
and in-depth perspectives on the research issue. It opens up various unexplored, unexpected and
specific angles to the study, which could have been overlooked in the secondary information.
Hence, the method of primary data collection was chosen. The researcher applied structured
interview process for collecting primary data for the study. As stated by Zhang et al. (2019), the
process of structured interview allows the interviewer to ask the same set of questions in the
same order to each of the participants. It is beneficial for gathering consistent as well as
comparable data. Both close and open ended questions can be used in the structured interview
process. In this study, the researcher used 6 open ended questions to get an idea about the waste
audit and waste management system in Subway.
The 6 questions consisted of the tenure of the employees, their opinion on the regular
business performance of the outlet, effectiveness of waste audit and waste management system,
level of average waste of the outlet, on the waste reduction and control capacity of the waste
audit in Subway, and suggestions on improving the efficiency of waste management.
Manager’s response
 The manager of Subway has informed that he has been working in Subway since the last
5 years, which is quite a long time.

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 Regarding the regular business performance of the outlet, the manager highlighted that
during the festive season and occasions, such as, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New
Years and many more, the level sales and profits is very high in this outlet. During the
other times, the quantity of sales and profits is quite less, as the footfall is moderate.
Sometimes, the outlet even faces losses and generates large amount of food and inventory
waste due to fall in the sales.
 Regarding the efficiency of the waste audit and waste management system in the outlet,
the manager reported that those systems are very inefficient as the amount of wastes is
very high and the efforts taken to reduce the wastes are mostly ineffective. The waste
management system cannot predict the upcoming sales accurately and hence waste
generation continues. The more is the waste, the higher is the cost of operation, which
becomes a burden on the company and results in losses. Hence, it is very important to
monitor and control the waste to a sustainable level, so that the operational costs can be
controlled and reduced.
 In the context of average amount of waste generated in the outlet, the manager informed
that the level of food and inventory waste is very high when the business is moderate. As
the business handles perishable products, it must dispose of the raw food and inventories
that are not sold. Hence, when the business is low, the amount of waste is higher and that
is not sustainable for the business, as well as for the environment. The major reasons for
low business according to the manager are the inconvenient location of the outlet, which
is quite far from the main road, inefficient system of waste management, high cost of the
distribution and supply network, and highly competitive fast food industry, especially the
local competition is quite high. All these factors contribute significantly in keeping the
average level of waste high.
 The manager has a positive opinion on the effectiveness of a proper and accurate waste
audit and waste management system. According to him, an efficient waste audit system
can more accurately identify the factors that causes high waste and that is beneficial for
taking waste reduction measures. This system is also beneficial for tracking, monitoring
and controlling the wastes by comparing the records of all the years. If an efficient waste
audit system can be introduced, it would be useful for not only tracking the specific
elements causing high wastes, but also would help in accurate prediction of the future

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customer footfalls in the store based on historical data. That can be used for controlling
the amount of food preparation and wastes can be reduced effectively.
 Lastly, the manager suggested that improvement in the supply and distribution network
and packaging could reduce damage of perishable, fresh and processed food items during
transportation. He also mentioned that the infrastructure of the warehouse should be
improved too for reducing inventory damages. Along with that, the waste management
system should also include more efficient inventory management system. More precise
market research is required to understand continuously evolving tastes and preferences of
the customers and to launch innovative items to attract more visitors to the outlet. Finally,
advanced technology should be implemented for precise waste audit, and sales prediction
in the outlet.
Employee’s response
 The employee reported that he has been associated with Subway outlet for the last 2
years. This is also a good amount of time to know about the operations, profits and losses
of the outlet.
 The employee also reported that the Subway experiences higher sales and profits during
the festive occasions. In other months, the sales is quite low and that sometimes lead to
losses of the store.
 In regards to the opinion on waste audit and waste management systems in the store, the
employee considers those to be inefficient, similar to the manager, as those cannot reduce
the daily amount of food and inventory wastes to a sustainable level.
 The employee reported that almost 10 to 12 kgs of food and inventory wastes are
generated daily on an average. This is worth of almost NZ $75-100 per day. At the end of
the month, the cumulative amount is quite high and that is concern for the management of
this store. Not only valuable food resources are wasted, but it also results in higher cost of
operation and losses for the business.
 In the context of efficient waste management system in the store, the employee also holds
same opinion as the manager. He thinks that an efficient system of waste audit and
management is highly important as that can identify the elements in the operational

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structure and functioning causing high amount of wastes and it can also give precise sales
prediction to reduce the quantity of daily wastes.
 Similar to the manager, the employee also suggested to implement advanced technology
for effective waste auditing, inventory and waste management, and sales prediction, and
to improve packaging to prevent damages during supply and distribution.
4.1.2 Secondary data findings
According to the website of Subway, New Zealand, the company is committed to reduce
their environmental footprint while serving the community with nutritious and great tasted food.
Hence, implementing sustainable measures is one of the vital agendas of Subway. They also aim
to find and implement sustainable as well as cost effective solutions for the franchisees, which
includes sustainable initiatives, like, energy saving, water and other resource conservation,
reduction of wastes, sustainable sourcing and efficient management of supply and distribution
network (subway.com/en-NZ, 2019). However, the company website does not mention the
application of efficient waste audit and management mechanism for reducing food and inventory
wastes to a sustainable level. Thus, it can be said that the franchisee stores face the challenge of
high amount of waste and resulting higher operational cost, as found from the primary data
collected through interview process.
As per the report by Wasteminz.org.nz (2018), on food waste in the cafes and restaurant
sector of New Zealand, it has been found that on an average, the above mentioned sector
generates 24,372 tonnes of food waste per year. It amounts to 2.8 tonnes of waste per food
business per year. Among these waste, 60% is generated from preparation process, which
includes factors like food wasted during cooking, cleaning and cutting, incorrect or poor cooking
and unsold food. 33% is generated from the plate waste in the food outlets and 7% is generated
from spoilage, that is, damage of food before use. According to the experts, $14 worth of savings
can be done for every $1 spent on the efforts for reducing food waste.

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Figure 2: Food waste in the cafe and restaurant sector
(Source: Wasteminz.org.nz, 2018)
In 2018, the category of food that is wasted most, is 28% of vegetables, followed by 26%
of bakery, 13% meat and 9% fresh fruits. In 2017, New Zealand had 8499 cafes and restaurants,
among which Subway chain outlets are one. Among the wastes, 61% were avoidable while 39%
were unavoidable, such as, banana skins, egg shells, bones of fish and meat etc. It is also found
that in the food outlets that sell prepared food like sandwiches, pies and scones etc., 30% of the
wastes are the unsold food (Wasteminz.org.nz, 2018). Subway outlets also sell prepared food
with raw items as inventories and hence, the proportion of waste from unsold food and
inventories is quite high.

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4.2 Analysis of findings
The primary and secondary data are analyzed using descriptive method under qualitative
data analysis process. As the interview generated qualitative data, the descriptive method was the
most relevant process of interpreting the information and getting the perspectives. The secondary
data also contained findings from other reports, which can be best interpreted using qualitative
descriptive method.
From the data analysis, it is observed that the nation is facing a challenge of high amount
of food waste, which is not a sustainable solution. Food waste implies wastage of valuable
resources. It also implies waste of high amount of money, calories and much required nutrition
for the people (Abeliotis, Chroni & Lasaridi, 2019). This is not a good sign for the economies as
that causes the resource reserves to deplete. In times of high level of food insecurity, the amount
of food waste is a serious concern for the all the economies and New Zealand is no exception.
The amount of food waste in the café and restaurant sector is extremely high and this was
calculated through waste audit research studies. As found from the studies, almost 30% of the
food waste is originated from unsold prepared food (Wasteminz.org.nz, 2018) and this also
includes the wastes from the Subway outlets. Thus, the amount of waste generated in the Subway
store is quite high and that is a concern. This waste of unsold food incurs high amount of cost,
which comprises of the raw materials price, preparation cost, menu cost, overhead cost of store,
supply and distribution cost etc. (Leal Filho & Kovaleva, 2015). Hence, when the percentage of
food waste is high, the percentage of monetary loss is also high.
As found from the previous research works, the studies were based on waste audit. It has
been observed that waste audit is the best method to find out the categories of waste, along with
the volume of waste. The volume and categories are important to get the monetary valuation of
that much waste of food and inventories. Waste audit is considered to be the one of the most
precise methods for quantifying the amount of wastes and giving a valuation to that (Wilkie,
Graunke & Cornejo, 2015). In New Zealand, it has been observed that waste audit is the most
preferred method for identifying the factors that has led to high volume of waste in the food
sector and this specific information is beneficial for designing the effective solutions. As stated
by Hottle et al. (2015), waste audit is beneficial for determining the effectiveness of the business
operations, that is, whether the business operations are sustainable, profitable, and what are the

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aspects that work for the business and what does not. The waste audit system is also useful for
saving money as it has the potential to unlock the missing channels of revenue and possible
saving options by exploring the factors contributing in the issue. It is one of the methods that
generates very accurate outcome as the findings are evaluated scientifically and quantitatively,
and hence, it is often required for regulatory compliance reporting. Waste audit also allows the
businesses to meet the certification standards as it can specifically identify and analyze the
required factors that are generating unnecessary wastes and can categorize the avoidable and
unavoidable wastes (Verghese et al., 2018). Hence, this is supporting the opinions of the
manager and the employee of Subway regarding the implementation of an efficient waste audit
system, which can be helpful in segregating the type of wastes, finding specific measures to
address those loopholes and reduce the amount of food and inventory wastes and operational
costs.

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5.0: Conclusion and Recommendations
This is the last segment of the research paper. In this section, the concluding remarks on
the study are presented followed by some recommendations to address the research problem. It is
found from the study that the waste audit and inventory and waste management system followed
in the Subway outlet is highly inefficient as the amount of food waste is high, especially during
the regular business months. While the business is profitable during the festive time, in other
months, the outlet has been facing severe challenges due to high volume of food and inventory
wastes and resulting higher operational cost. This is leading to continuous losses for the business,
which cannot be overcome by higher sales in few festive occasions in the whole year. In
Subway, maximum food waste is generated from unsold prepared food, during the preparations,
in the transportation of supply and distribution, and to some extent from the plates of the
customers. Hence, these aspects must be noted by the company. However, Subway does not have
an efficient waste audit system and hence, the precise percentage of waste from each of the
categories cannot be determined. This creates obstacles for the company to implement effective
sustainable measures for waste reduction as well as reducing operational cost.
5.1 Recommendations
To overcome the business issues generated due to inefficient waste audit and waste management
system, Subway can follow the recommendations given below:
 The company must immediately invest in implementing effective waste audit system to
identify the specific factors contributing in the high volume of food and inventory waste.
This system should be precise and technologically advanced so that exact volume of
waste and the sources can be identified. This would help the store to plan and implement
effective strategies to mitigate the volume and impact of loss in terms of food, resources
and money.
 Subway should also adopt intense market research methods, such as, feedback collection
from the customers, as this would help the company to know and understand the
customers’ needs, wants and preferences better. This precise information can be used to
implement measures for attracting more customers to the store. For example, a new and

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innovative item can be launched by considering the suggestions and feedback of the
customers, marketing techniques, such as, discount pricing can be applied during
particular hours in a day etc.
 Warehouse infrastructure should be improved as part of inventory and waste management
programs so that the damage while storing the food can be reduced.
 Packaging of the food should be improved in order to reduce the damage percentage
during the supply and distribution transportation.

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Appendix
Interview questions:
1) How long have you been working with Subway?
2) How is the regular business performance of this outlet?
3) What is opinion on the waste audit and waste management in Subway?
4) What is the level of waste on an average in this outlet?
5) Do you feel waste audit can reduce and control the level of waste in Subway?
6) Please suggest how the efficiency of waste management can be improved?
Manager’s response
Answer 1)
I have been working in Subway since the last 5 years.
Answer 2)
The business of this outlet is quite good during the festive season. It has been observed
that the sales and profit figures are higher in times of occasions, like, Christmas, New Year, etc.
However, in the regular months, business performance is moderate.
Answer 3)
The waste audit and waste management systems in this Subway outlet are quite
inefficient. The amount of waste is very high, leading to higher cost of operations. The food and
inventories waste must be monitored and controlled to a sustainable level to reduce the
operational and waste costs.

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Answer 4)
On an average, the amount of waste in this outlet is very high. In the regular months, the
waste is quite higher causing loss to the business as well as the food production. Inconvenient
location of the store, inefficient waste management system, high cost distribution and supply
network, and high competition in the fast food industry are some of the causes that contribute in
keeping the average level of waste high.
Answer 5)
Waste audit is an effective system to supervise and control the level of waste in the food
industry. It can identify the specific waste areas for addressing and forecasting the optimum
production level by applying scientific methods. This can help in precisely forecasting the
potential customer footfall during all the months, which could help in controlling the food
preparation and storage amount and hence, would reduce the level of waste.
Answer 6)
Some measures can be implemented to improve the business performance by reducing
the amount of waste. The distribution and supply chain network must be improved to reduce
damage during the transportations. The infrastructure of the warehouses should be improved to
prevent faster damages of the perishable products. The supervision and monitoring of inventories
should be improved, market research should be more precise to understand the tastes and
preferences of the customers and the menus should be redesigned and innovated. These can
result in reduction of wastes. Furthermore, the advanced technology and software should be used
for accurate sales prediction, which would beneficial for reducing wastes in Subway.

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Employee’s response
Answer 1)
I am associated with Subway for 2 years.
Answer 2)
I have seen higher sales during the festive times, such as, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New
Years etc. During the other months, the sales volume is quite low.
Answer 3)
The waste audit and waste management system is quite inefficient considering the level
of food that get waste in Subway every day.
Answer 4)
On an average, 10 to 12 kgs of food and inventories are wasted every day, which is worth
of NZ $75-100. This is a large amount and must be reduced as soon as possible because it not
only leads to valuable food waste, but also results in very high cost of operation and sometimes
losses during the regular months.
Answer 5)
Efficient system of waste management is highly essential as that can be used to identify
the loopholes in the operational structure and for precise sales prediction. These measures can
reduce the unnecessary wastes of food and inventories significantly.
Answer 6)
Various measures should be implemented to control the wastes in the outlet. The food
packaging should be improved to reduce damages during supply and distribution. Advanced
software should be used for precise sales prediction, and efficient inventory management system
must be implemented to have an effective supervision and control on the inventories, which can
help in reducing food inventory damages.