Food Waste in Hospitals and Strategies for Change

Food waste in hospitals refers to the served food that remains uneaten by patients. High levels of food waste contribute to malnutrition-related complications in hospital, and there are also financial and environmental costs. Plate waste is two to three times higher in hospitals than in other foodservice sectors, such as restaurants, cafes, schools and work place canteens. The reasons were into four broad categories: (1) clinical condition of patients (2) food, namely quality, portion sizes, and available choices (iii) service, including difficulty accessing food and complex ordering systems; and (iv) environ mental factors, such as meal times, interruptions, and surroundings. Throughout the EU27 food waste is a growing concern, mounting to 89 million tonnes per year, or 180 kg per capita. If no action is taken, the projection is that the value will increase 40% in 2020, to 126 million tonnes. All these tonnes of food transformed into waste equate to economic losses and environmental impacts. The roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe recognizes the need for waste prevention and proposes to halve disposal of food waste by 2020. Some food waste is unavoidable, even in the most efficient of systems, but the figures presented here highlight the potential financial and environmental savings that can arise for Hospitals from tackling this problem. Strategies to minimize waste include reduced portion sizes with food fortification, bulk meal delivery system, feeding assistance, provision of dining rooms, and protected meal times. Waste minimization would have significant environmental gains, especially in terms of reduced CO 2 emissions, resource and energy conservation and pollution prevention.

Keywords:

food catering , meal delivery , waste reduction , food loss