A Study of Food Waste in the Catering Industry in Beijing

doi:10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2020.06.003

Abstract

Abstract:

Currently, the topic of food waste and its environmental impacts is attracting increasing attention among academic researchers. Based on an investigation of restaurants in Beijing, this study analyzes the quantities, structures, characteristics and costs of the agricultural resources related to food waste in the catering industry in Beijing. The results show that: (1) The average food waste per capita per meal is about 75.02 g (raw) for food away from home among Beijing urban residents, which means that about 10.52% of the food is wasted. (2) According to the quantitative ranking of different categories of food waste, vegetable is the most wasted, followed by meat, aquatic products, and grains. The foods in the other categories are wasted much less. (3) Food waste is affected by the restaurant type, as well as the number, gender, age, education level, and consumption motivation of the consumers. (4) Based on the estimated food waste per capita, about 417.92 thousand tons of food is wasted annually at the consumption stage in the catering industry in Beijing. This food waste amount is equivalent to approximately 765.53 tons of cereals which are wasted, and this represents 79.66% of cereals production and 13.15% of cereals consumption in Beijing. Estimated by the required land use, this amount of food waste means that the total production of approximately 166.12 thousand ha of arable land is being wasted in Beijing.

Key words: food waste, catering industry, empirical survey, food security

CAO Xiaochang, LIU Xiaojie, CHENG Shengkui, LIU Yao, ZHANG Panpan. A Study of Food Waste in the Catering Industry in Beijing[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2020, 11(6): 562-569.

Figures/Tables 12

Fig. 1 Steps of the food waste survey

Table 1 Food /material classification

Food	Materials	Cooking methods
Principal foods	Rice, wheat, peanut, corn and others, usually in the form of soup, noodles, bread or dumplings	Steam, boil, stir-fry, roast, simmer, deep-fry, marinate, braise
Meats	Pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck and others, including three sorts: pure meat, ribs and offal
Aquatic products	Fish, shrimp, crab, shellfish and others
Vegetables	Root/melon/bulb/leaf/aquatic/permanent vegetables, cabbage, brassica, mustard, solanaceous, potato, mushroom, beans & bean products and others
Eggs	Chicken eggs and other eggs
Dairy	Milk, dairy products and others

Fig. 2 Food waste in the catering industry in Beijing

Fig. 3 Structure of food waste in the catering industry in Beijing

Fig. 4 Food waste for different numbers of consumers Note: Lr: large-scale restaurants; Mr: medium-sized restaurants; Sr: small-sized restaurants; Ff: fast food restaurants.

Fig. 5 Food waste by male and female single consumers

Fig. 6 Food waste in different restaurant types Note: Lr: large-scale restaurants; Mr: medium-sized restaurants; Sr: small-sized restaurants; Ff: fast food restaurants

Fig. 7 Food waste of different consumer ages

Fig. 8 Food waste of consumers with different education levels

Fig. 9 Food waste of consumers with different motivations

Table 2 The costs of agricultural resources of food waste in the Beijing catering industry

Types of agricultural resources	Arable land (×10³ ha)	Cereals (×10³ t)	TAMP (×10³ kW)	REC (×10⁶ kW h)	CCF (×10³ t)
Cost of food waste	166.12	765.53	1562.12	3649.98	96.24

Fig. 10 Cost of arable land of food waste in the Beijing catering industry

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