Quantifying Food Waste in the Hospitality Sector and Exploring Its Underlying Reasons—A Case Study of Lahore, Pakistan

Nouman Afzal, Abdul Basit, Adil Daniel, Nausheen Ilyas, Asad Imran, Zoia Arshad Awan, Effie Papargyropoulou, Lindsay C. Stringer, Mohamed Hashem, Saad Alamri, Muhammad Amjad Bashir, Yunzhou Li and Nazish Roy
Additional contact information
Nouman Afzal: Food and Markets, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Lahore 54600, Pakistan
Abdul Basit: Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Adil Daniel: Food and Markets, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Lahore 54600, Pakistan
Nausheen Ilyas: Kauser Abdulla School of Life Sciences, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore 54600, Pakistan
Asad Imran: Food and Markets, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Lahore 54600, Pakistan
Zoia Arshad Awan: Food and Markets, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Lahore 54600, Pakistan
Effie Papargyropoulou: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Lindsay C. Stringer: Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Wentworth Way, York YO10 5DD, UK
Mohamed Hashem: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Saad Alamri: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad Amjad Bashir: Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan 32200, Pakistan
Yunzhou Li: Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Nazish Roy: Kauser Abdulla School of Life Sciences, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore 54600, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Given that about 40% of the total food produced globally is lost or wasted, there is an urgent need to understand what, where, why and how much food waste is generated. In this study, we collected the much-needed primary empirical data from the restaurants, hotels and caterers of Lahore, Pakistan through surveys and live tracking/diaries. Specifically, two key performance indicators, waste per customer (g) and percentage waste per day (%), were measured. Waste per customer was found to be 79.9 g (survey) and 73.4 g (live tracking) for restaurants, 138.4 g for hotels and 140.0 g for caterers. Similarly, the percentage of waste per day (%) was found to be 15% (survey) and 17% (live tracking) for restaurants. Results revealed that customer plate leftovers were reported to be the primary source of food waste, followed by inaccurate customer forecasting. Given the food waste levels identified in this study, the development and adoption of a national goal and target aimed at food waste reduction could usefully guide the efforts of all stakeholders. To achieve this, we need to build the capacity of all the relevant stakeholders on food loss and waste measurements and ensure national food waste reporting.

Keywords: food waste; hospitality sector; waste per customer; percentage waste; quantification; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6914/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6914/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6914-:d:832412

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().