Diagnosis of food waste generation in a university restaurant

Abstract

The restaurants produce meals in large scale, so the management of the solid waste is an environmental requirement and a hygienic-sanitary issue in this kind of establishment. Considering the need to reduce the generation of wastes, it was done an evaluation in a university restaurant, which were quantified the solid wastes generated at the meal production. During the 14 days of analysis, it was produced the amount of 3410.10 kg of food and it was generated 605.98 kg of solid wastes, as food remains. It was observed failures in the process of cutting and/or removal of excessive peel during the handling of food. The average of leftovers was 5.04% (prepared food that is not served on plates) and the serving losses average was 18.52%. Thus, to minimize the waste generation is necessary an awareness campaign focusing on reducing food waste involving employees and users of the university restaurant.