Assessing the management of food waste in restaurants at Makerere university main campus, Kampala district

Abstract

Food waste is defined as all food produced and purchased that is discarded. Food waste is produced in all the phases of food lifecycle, i.e., during agricultural production, industrial manufacturing, processing and distribution. Up to 42% of food waste is produced by household activities ,39% occurring in the manufacturing industry and 14% occurring in food service sector (ready to eat food, catering and restaurants) while 5% during distribution. This study therefore concentrated on the 14% in the food service sector, aiming at assessing the management of food waste in restaurants at Makerere university. Basically, three objectives guided the study. 1. To assess the quantity of food waste generated at restaurants in Makerere university. 2. To assess the different management and storage options of food waste employed at the restaurants. 3. To categorize the food waste generated at restaurants in Makerere university. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a mechanical weighing scale to find out the amount of food waste generated at the restaurants, and also use of guided observations to observe the management options, storage equipment and disposal frequency of the food waste. Data was analyzed using spss, to derive percentages and frequencies for the quantity of the food waste generated. Descriptive statistics were used to find out the frequencies and percentages of the different food waste management and storage options. Descriptive statistics were also used to define the various food waste categories based on the types of food prepared. Results showed that a lot of food waste was being generated during food preparation with an average mean weight of 8.55 kg compared to plate waste with average mean of 5.05kg. The most used management option for plate waste was animal feed with a valid 60.5% compared to landfill at 39.5%. the most used storage equipment were polythene bags and buckets at 39.5% and 31.6% respectively. The various food waste was categorized according to type of food type prepared and that was vegetable waste, peels, meat and bones, dough, etc. The study concluded that Makerere university restaurants contribute significantly to the amount of food waste generated in Kampala and a lot of waste is generated during food preparation compared to plate waste, after meals. I therefore recommend that, precautions be taken by the staff and management at these restaurants to try and minimize generation of waste during food preparation and also use management options such as composting through use of compost bins, make sure that the waste generated is also disposed of on a daily basis.