Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T03:29:58.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Food waste in campus dining operations: Inventory of pre- and post-consumer mass by food category, and estimation of embodied greenhouse gas emissions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2015

Christine Costello ,
Esma Birisci  and
Ronald G. McGarvey
Christine Costello*
Affiliation:
Department of Bioengineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
Esma Birisci
Affiliation:
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
Ronald G. McGarvey
Affiliation:
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
*
*Corresponding author:[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There are many economic, social and environmental reasons to reduce the occurrence of food that is wasted. As communities consider options for managing their food waste streams, an understanding of the volume, composition and variability of these streams is needed to inform the decision-making process and potentially justify the capital investments needed for separation and treatment operations. This more detailed inventory also allows for the estimation of embodied resources in food that is wasted, demonstrated herein for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Pre- and post-consumer food waste was collected from four all-you-care-to-eat Campus Dining Services (CDS) facilities at the University of Missouri, Columbia over 3 months in 2014. During the study period approximately 246.3 metric tons (t) of food reached the retail level at the four facilities. 232.4 t of this food was served and 13.9 t of it (10.1 t of edible and 3.8 t of inedible), was lost as pre-consumer waste. Over the same time period, an estimated 26.4 t of post-consumer food waste was generated at these facilities, 21.2 t of the waste edible and 5.3 t of it inedible. Overall, 5.6% of food reaching the retail level was lost at the pre-consumer stage and 10.7% was lost at the post-consumer stage. Out of the food categories examined, ‘fruits and vegetables’ constituted the largest source of food waste by weight, with grains as the second largest source of food waste by weight. GHGs embodied in edible food waste were calculated. Over the study period an estimated 11.1 t CO2e (100-yr) were embodied in the pre-consumer food waste and 56.1 t were embodied in post-consumer food waste for a total of 67.2 t. The ‘meat and protein’ category represents the largest embodiment of GHG emissions in both the pre- and post-consumer categories despite ranking fourth in total weight. Beef represents the largest contribution to post-consumer GHG emissions embodied in food waste with an estimated 34.1 t CO2e. This distinction between the greatest sources of food waste by weight and the greatest sources of GHG emissions is relevant when considering alternative management options for food waste.

Keywords

food wastesustainabilitysolid wasteinventory managementinstitutional foodservicebiomass feedstock
Type
Research Papers
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , pp. 191 - 201
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al-Domi, H., Al-Rawajfeh, H., Aboyousif, F., Yaghi, S., Mashal, R., and Fakhoury, J. 2011. Determining and addressing food plate waste in a group of students at the University of Jordan. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 10(9):871–878.Google Scholar
Aramark. 2008. The business and cultural acceptance case for trayless dining. Available at Web site http://www.aramarkhighered.com/assets/docs/whitepapers/ARAMARK%20Trayless%20Dining%20July%202008%20FINAL.PDF (verified October 6, 2014).Google Scholar
Buzby, J.C. and Guthrie, J.F. 2002. Plate waste in school nutrition programs final report to congress. Economic Research Service, US Department of Agriculture. Available at Web site http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/efan-electronic-publications-from-the-food-assistance-nutrition-research-program/efan02009.aspx (verified May 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Buzby, J.C. and Hyman, J. 2012. Total and per capita value of food loss in the United States. Food Policy 37:561–570.Google Scholar
Buzby, J.C., Wells, H.F., and Hyman, J. 2014. The estimated amount, value, and calories of postharvest food losses at the retail and consumer levels in the United States. EIB-121. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Available at Web site http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib-economic-information-bulletin/eib121.aspx (verified May 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Cassman, K.G., Wood, S., Choo, P.S., Cooper, H.D., Devendra, C., Dixon, J., Gaskell, J., Shabaz, K., Lal, R., Lipper, L., Pretty, J., Primavera, J., Ramankutty, N., Viglizzo, E., Wiebe, K., Kadungure, S., Kanbar, N., Khan, Z., Leakey, R., Porter, S., Sebastian, K., and Tharme, R. 2005. Cultivated Systems. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Current State and Trends, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 1. Island Press, Washington, DC. p. 745–794.Google Scholar
de Vries, M. and de Boer, I.J.M. 2010. Comparing environmental impacts for livestock products: a review of life cycle assessments. Livestock Science 128:1–11.Google Scholar
Engström, R. and Carlsson-Kanyama, A. 2004. Food losses in food service institution examples from Sweden. Food Policy 29:203–213.Google Scholar
EPA US. 2014. Inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990–2011 2013. Available at Web site: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/ghgemissions/US-GHG-Inventory-2013-Main-Text.pdf (verified October 8, 2014).Google Scholar
FAO. 2013. Food wastage footprint. Impacts of natural resources. Summary report 2013. Available at Web site http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3347e/i3347e.pdf (verified December 20, 2013).Google Scholar
González, A.D., Frostell, B., and Carlsson-Kanyama, A. 2011. Protein efficiency per unit energy and per unit greenhouse gas emissions: Potential contribution of diet choices to climate change mitigation. Food Policy 36:562–570.Google Scholar
Goonan, S., Mirosa, M., and Spence, H. 2014. Getting a taste for food waste: a mixed methods ethnographic study into hospital food waste before patient consumption conducted at three New Zealand foodservice facilities. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 114:63–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Hamerschlag, K. and Venkat, K. 2011. Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change+Health. Life Cycle Assessments, Methodology and Results. Environmental Working Group, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hillier, F.S. and Lieberman, G.J. 2015. Introduction to Operations Research. 10th ed. McGraw-Hill Education, New York.Google Scholar
Hong, B., Swaney, D.P., and Howarth, R.W. 2011. A toolbox for calculating net anthropogenic nitrogen inputs (NANI). Environmental Modelling and Software 26:623–633.Google Scholar
Kantor, L.S., Lipton, K., Manchester, A., and Oliveria, V. 1997. Estimating and addressing America's food losses. Food Review 20:2–12.Google Scholar
Koester, U. 2013. Total and per capita value of food loss in the United States – comments. Food Policy 41:63–64.Google Scholar
Meisterling, K., Samaras, C., and Schweizer, V. 2009. Decisions to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture and product transport: LCA case study of organic and conventional wheat. Journal of Cleaner Production 17:222–230.Google Scholar
Parfitt, J., Barthel, M., and Macnaughton, S. 2010. Review food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365:3065–3081.Google ScholarPubMed
Reap, J., Roman, F., Duncan, S., and Bras, B. 2008. A survey of unresolved problems in life cycle assessment Part 1: goal and scope and inventory analysis. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 13:290–300.Google Scholar
Roy, P., Nei, D., Orikasa, T., Xu, Q., Okadome, H., Nakamura, N., and Shiina, T. 2009. A review of life cycle assessment (LCA) on some food products. Journal of Food Engineering 90:1–10.Google Scholar
Tamhane, A.C. and Dunlop, D.D. 2000. Statistics and Data Analysis – From Elementary to Intermediate. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.Google Scholar
United Nations DESA, Population Division. 2013. World population prospects: The 2012 revision, key findings and advance tables. Working paper no. ESA/P/WP.227. Available at Web site http://esa.un.org/wpp/documentation/pdf/WPP2012_%20KEY%20FINDINGS.pdf [verified October 6, 2014]Google Scholar
USDA. 2013. USDA and EPA launch U.S. food waste challenge. Available at Web site http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2013/06/0112.xml (verified October 17, 2013).Google Scholar
Venkat, K. 2011. The climate change and economic impacts of food waste in the United States. International Journal of Food System Dynamics 2(4):431–446.Google Scholar
Weber, C.L. and Matthews, H.S. 2008. Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States. Environmental Science and Technology 42(10):3508–3513.Google Scholar
Whitehair, K.J., Shanklin, C.W., and Brannon, L.A. 2013. Written messages improve edible food waste behaviors in a University Dining Facility. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 113(1):63–69.Google Scholar
Williams, P. and Walton, K. 2011. Plate waste in hospitals and strategies for change. e-SPEN, the European e-Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism 6:e235–e241.Google Scholar
WRAP. 2008. The food we waste. United Kingdom ‘s Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Banbury 2008. Available at Web site http://www.ifr.ac.uk/waste/Reports/WRAP%20The%20Food%20We%20Waste.pdf (verified August 8, 2014).Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Costello supplementary material

Tables S1-S4 and Figures S1-S2

Download Costello supplementary material(File)
File 1.3 MB