On average fast food can produce up to 68,039 kilograms of food waste each year. according to a 2005 study, food wastage as a percentage of the total food used is 9.55% in fast food, amounting in 38584105 kilograms as a total loss per day in fast food in the country, and 3.11% in restaurants, which is a total loss of 22347834 kilograms in full service restaurants.
Pre-consumer kitchen waste is a massive part of food wastage in restaurants and fast food as well as consumers throwing away leftover food. The food that gets wasted includes incorrectly prepared food, spoiled food, trim waste, and overproduction. This constitutes an estimated 4-10% of purchased food to become waste before it can be consumed. Solutions restaurants can use to solve these problems include donating to a food bank, and assessing prep waste to determine poor practices or highly wasteful items. |
Solutions- take home any leftover food from restaurants
- take less food than you think you will eat, take more after if you are still hungry - give away leftover food for less or free - re-use of certain foods (eg. making stale bread into croutons or keeping it in the freezer) |
Advantages- less food wastage
- less consumer intake, therefore less resources get wasted - less greenhouse gasses produced - if many people take action this could help end global warming and world hunger |
Disadvantages- it takes many people to make a big difference
- the food can be unhealthy - take away containers cost money - legal issues including suing if the customer gets sick |