Main findings from direct measurement
| References | Design/methodology/approach | Specific sector investigated | Sample | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eriksson et al. (2012) | Products with barcode scanned and saved in supermarket's database. Products without barcode weighted and manually entered into the database | Retail | 6 stores located in the Stockholm-Uppsala region of Sweden (Willys chain) | Total food waste in 2010 per category. Potato: 10 t. Lettuce: 7.31 t. Tomato: 6.75 t. Sweet pepper: 5.37 t. Carrot: 4.50 t. Banana: 4.37 t. Apple: 3.78 t. Orange: 3.74 t. Grape: 3.66 t. Pear: 3.06 t |
| Kallbekken and Saelen (2013) | All hotels recorded and reported the amount of food waste | Hospitality (hotel restaurants) | 53 hotels from Nordic Choice Hotels | Pre-treatment food waste (average): 39.90 kg per hotel. Post-treatment food waste (average): 31.02 kg |
| Costello et al. (2015) | Food waste collected from facilities, transported to other location, separated into different food categories and weighted | Campus dining operations | 4 different facilities at the University of Missouri in Columbia (US) | Pre-consumer food waste: 24.6 g per customer (6.7 inedible and 17.9 edible) Post-consumer food waste: 47.1 g (9.4 inedible and 37.7 edible) |
| Brancoli et al. (2017) | See Eriksson et al. (2012) | Retail (mid-size urban supermarket) | 1 supermarket located in the city of Boras (Sweden) with a sale area of 410 m2 | Waste from October 2014 to September 2015: 22.5 t of food |
| Eriksson et al. (2017) | Data collection by the kitchen staff using electronic kitchen scales, pen and paper for making notes and an Excel spread sheet. Portions served measured by the number of plates used by service | Public catering services | 30 kitchen units including 4 elderly care homes, 14 schools and 12 preschools in Sweden | On average, 75 g per portion was wasted, of which 64% of serving waste, 33% of plate waste and 3% of other waste |
| Strotmann et al. (2017) | Three parts: visit and measurement parts taking place on-site at the food service facilities, and analysis phase taking place off-site. Measurement of patients', customers' and residents' plate waste for all meals with electronic scales | Hospitality | 3 institutions: one hospital, one cafeteria and one retirement home, in Germany | Hospital waste rate: 25.6% +/− 4.6% Cafeteria waste rate: 19.8% +/− 8.3% Retirement home waste rate: 21.4% +/− 6.7% |
| Wang et al. (2017) | See Table 5 | See Table 5 | See Table 5 | See Table 5 |
| Boschini et al. (2018) | Direct method with food weighted with an electronic scale. Data aggregated and measured separately across plate types | Hospitality (school canteens) | 5 primary schools within the Bologna province (Italy) | Amount of plate waste per person: 114.4 g (edible fraction: 107 g and inedible fraction: 7.4 g per capita) |
| Hartikainen et al. (2018) | Different typologies of measurement: questionnaires, direct in-field measurement, interviews and literature data in filling gaps | Primary production (agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries) | 6 case products in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark | Total amount of food waste estimated in 800,000 t per year, plus additional 100,000 t per year from the rearing phase of animals |
| Johnson et al. (2018) | Food waste samples collected, sorted, weighted and recorded, then information is used to calculate average harvest remained on the field (t/ha) | Primary production (agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries) | 13 fields of 121 ha in North Carolina, US | On average, on-farm food loss is: 0.10 kg per plant still marketable; 0.25 kg per plant edible but unmarketable; 0.18 kg per plant inedible |
| Beretta and Hellweg (2019) | Physical assessment partly combined with staff members interviews and with literature data in filling gaps | Food service sector (health, education, hotels and restaurants) | 13 case studies in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Finland and the UK | Restaurant (buffet): 105 g per meal Restaurant (beer hall): 104 g per meal Primary school: 147 g per meal Hospital: 302 g per meal Hotel: 64 g per meal Business canteen: 189 g per meal |
| Giboreau et al. (2019) | Photos automatically taken by a camera on a tripod from 1 m distance and 45-degree angle | Hospitality (school cafeteria) | 1 school cafeteria self-service, 215 children (776 trays) in France | Vegetables were significantly the most wasted food, especially cooked, either served warm as side dish (66% wasted) or cold as a starter (42% wasted) |
| Khalid et al. (2019) | Plastic bags given to households to keep their one-day (24 h) food waste. Each food waste fraction was weighted separately, and its weight was recorded | Households | 51 households in Kahror Pakka Tehsil of District Lodhran, Punjab, Pakistan | Cooked food wasted: 35.01 g per household per day. Vegetables wasted: 11.62 g per household per day. Fruits wasted: 9.78 g per household per day. Cereals wasted: 2.45 g per household per day. Dairy wasted: 1.98 g per household per day |
| Pflugh Prescott et al. (2019) | Mixed methodologies including interviews, kitchen observations and food waste direct measurement. All wasted food was collected and measured. The final total amount was calculated by mass per serving from district recipes and product specifications | Hospitality (school canteens) | 13 school kitchens and 1 district centralized kitchen in Colorado, US | On average, 43.8 g of food waste per student, of which 74.2% still edible. In addition, 15.2 mL of liquid food waste per student |
| Schneider et al. (2019) | On-site measuring per harvest losses for potatoes (2013), repeated in 2014 | Primary production (potato production) | 6 case studies in Austria and Germany | Average non-harvested potatoes: 0.7 t/ha Average over-sized, damaged and sorted out potatoes: 0.9 t/ha |
| References | Design/methodology/approach | Specific sector investigated | Sample | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Products with barcode scanned and saved in supermarket's database. Products without barcode weighted and manually entered into the database | Retail | 6 stores located in the Stockholm-Uppsala region of Sweden (Willys chain) | Total food waste in 2010 per category. Potato: 10 t. Lettuce: 7.31 t. Tomato: 6.75 t. Sweet pepper: 5.37 t. Carrot: 4.50 t. Banana: 4.37 t. Apple: 3.78 t. Orange: 3.74 t. Grape: 3.66 t. Pear: 3.06 t | |
| All hotels recorded and reported the amount of food waste | Hospitality (hotel restaurants) | 53 hotels from Nordic Choice Hotels | Pre-treatment food waste (average): 39.90 kg per hotel. Post-treatment food waste (average): 31.02 kg | |
| Food waste collected from facilities, transported to other location, separated into different food categories and weighted | Campus dining operations | 4 different facilities at the University of Missouri in Columbia (US) | Pre-consumer food waste: 24.6 g per customer (6.7 inedible and 17.9 edible) | |
| See | Retail (mid-size urban supermarket) | 1 supermarket located in the city of Boras (Sweden) with a sale area of 410 m2 | Waste from October 2014 to September 2015: 22.5 t of food | |
| Data collection by the kitchen staff using electronic kitchen scales, pen and paper for making notes and an Excel spread sheet. Portions served measured by the number of plates used by service | Public catering services | 30 kitchen units including 4 elderly care homes, 14 schools and 12 preschools in Sweden | On average, 75 g per portion was wasted, of which 64% of serving waste, 33% of plate waste and 3% of other waste | |
| Three parts: visit and measurement parts taking place on-site at the food service facilities, and analysis phase taking place off-site. Measurement of patients', customers' and residents' plate waste for all meals with electronic scales | Hospitality | 3 institutions: one hospital, one cafeteria and one retirement home, in Germany | Hospital waste rate: 25.6% +/− 4.6% | |
| See | See | See | See | |
| Direct method with food weighted with an electronic scale. Data aggregated and measured separately across plate types | Hospitality (school canteens) | 5 primary schools within the Bologna province (Italy) | Amount of plate waste per person: 114.4 g (edible fraction: 107 g and inedible fraction: 7.4 g per capita) | |
| Different typologies of measurement: questionnaires, direct in-field measurement, interviews and literature data in filling gaps | Primary production (agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries) | 6 case products in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark | Total amount of food waste estimated in 800,000 t per year, plus additional 100,000 t per year from the rearing phase of animals | |
| Food waste samples collected, sorted, weighted and recorded, then information is used to calculate average harvest remained on the field (t/ha) | Primary production (agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries) | 13 fields of 121 ha in North Carolina, US | On average, on-farm food loss is: 0.10 kg per plant still marketable; 0.25 kg per plant edible but unmarketable; 0.18 kg per plant inedible | |
| Physical assessment partly combined with staff members interviews and with literature data in filling gaps | Food service sector (health, education, hotels and restaurants) | 13 case studies in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Finland and the UK | Restaurant (buffet): 105 g per meal | |
| Photos automatically taken by a camera on a tripod from 1 m distance and 45-degree angle | Hospitality (school cafeteria) | 1 school cafeteria self-service, 215 children (776 trays) in France | Vegetables were significantly the most wasted food, especially cooked, either served warm as side dish (66% wasted) or cold as a starter (42% wasted) | |
| Plastic bags given to households to keep their one-day (24 h) food waste. Each food waste fraction was weighted separately, and its weight was recorded | Households | 51 households in Kahror Pakka Tehsil of District Lodhran, Punjab, Pakistan | Cooked food wasted: 35.01 g per household per day. Vegetables wasted: 11.62 g per household per day. Fruits wasted: 9.78 g per household per day. Cereals wasted: 2.45 g per household per day. Dairy wasted: 1.98 g per household per day | |
| Mixed methodologies including interviews, kitchen observations and food waste direct measurement. All wasted food was collected and measured. The final total amount was calculated by mass per serving from district recipes and product specifications | Hospitality (school canteens) | 13 school kitchens and 1 district centralized kitchen in Colorado, US | On average, 43.8 g of food waste per student, of which 74.2% still edible. In addition, 15.2 mL of liquid food waste per student | |
| On-site measuring per harvest losses for potatoes (2013), repeated in 2014 | Primary production (potato production) | 6 case studies in Austria and Germany | Average non-harvested potatoes: 0.7 t/ha |
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