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

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