Why American Restaurants Waste more food
Food waste is the throwing away of items that are fit for human consumption that end up in landfills. America is a global leader in food wastage. However, 37 million people, including 11 million children, suffer from food insecurity. Instead of having ways of ensuring that they provide food to these populations, the Americans increasingly waste more food than any other country annually. The enormous food waste in landfills takes nearly 22% of the municipal solid waste (MSW) and is comprised up “80 billion pounds” of foods, which equates to more than “$161billion”, making almost 30-40% of trash out of the total food supply in the country (“RTS”). The restaurants’ food waste accounts for 15% of the country’s entire food waste, while nearly $1600 worth of food wasted annually are discarded by an average American family of four members. The problem of food wastage is affecting the world not only by costing them a lot but by increasing the greenhouse effects due to the methane gas generated by the pile of food wastes and dumpsters (Royte). In America, the average food wasted by an individual annually is “219lds”, which cost each family $1600 every year. With the significant World Wildlife Federation attributes to the “Americans wasted food-producing greenhouse emissions equivalent of 37 million cars”, there is a need to become persuaded by the environmental impacts and the food security problem in addressing food wastage (Chandler). A pivotal case of restaurant food waste is the lack of innovative and better ways to significantly utilize the remained food that goes used, which would have wasted by inadequate recycling and reuse strategies.
Causes of Restaurants’ food waste
Generally, food wastage in restaurants attributes to the country’s consumer population’s cultural behavior and the behavior of the employees and the consumers in the restaurants, which does not give much concern on the act of giving out to those who do not have. America is experiencing a change in consumption of food due to the changes in generations and increased growth and development in technologies. This has made much of population consumption, especially the youths, to value take-outs and restaurant foods as they seek to explore their different menus and different cultural cuisines. However, these changes in lifestyle and behaviors are not the resultant aspects of food wastage, but they play a role in increasing the food shortage’s significant causes by increasing the frequency of restaurants’ eating habits and making the issue to become a low priority. Some of the reasons include:
Overbuying
This is a great contributor to food wastage. It involves the lack of restaurants undertaking good forecasting of consumption of their foods, leading to buying more food stocks that end up getting spoilt or even coking more food, which ends up reaming and eventually ends up in their dumpsters. Due to various factors, consumers also overbuy foods in large amounts that they do not require or even food they would not even eat. In America, food is cheaper than anywhere else in the world, aided by subsidies to corn, wheat, milk, and soybeans (Chandler), which mainly result in overbuying. Restaurants serve customers with more foods than the quantity they can significantly manage to finish. The tantalizing menus and different buffets make customer request or even serve themselves with food they did not even require but what to taste and feel how it tastes, thus increasing the number of leftover foods that end getting wasted.
Due to the cheap food, consumers end up not appreciating or valuing it that many ends up impulse buying food and become very picky about the kind of food customers what. Most of the consumers in the restaurants buy food that they do not even require and end up leaving a lot on the plate, which ends up being wasted. Similarly, due to their policies and other concerns, restaurants tend to throw away food ordered by the customer and returned because the customer was not pleased with the delivery. Overbuying dramatically attributes 85% of the food wasted from restaurants because it was not used or left on a consumer plate or in the kitchen (“Common Causes of and Solutions to Restaurant Food Waste”). It is sad and astonishing when half a pound of food is wasted per meal in restaurants. Therefore, attributing to the food wastage a significant portion of the country’s landfill wastage, while more people face food insecurity. Each faces uncertainties concerning the source of a meal each day. Environmental implications are continuously increasing due to the composition of food waste in dumpsters and landfills, generating a significant amount of methane gas.
Food Spoilage
Restaurants significantly contribute to food wastage as a result of spoilage. Preparation techniques matter when preparing different dishes. A simple mistake from the chef mixing the ingredient wrongly or adding too much of a single element results in a different taste and produces unnecessary waste. It is termed as spoiled, yet it is god to consume. Similarly, when the storage of the food is inadequate, or food is not stored promptly, it is rendered unfit for consumption and thus becomes food waste. Food spoilage is significantly worse since more than 80% of Americans throw away food that is healthy and good for consumption while the rest genuinely throw away food because it is harmful for consumption (RTS). The leading factor of throwing away good food is the misinterpretation resulting from misunderstanding the expiration labels in the different food products and farm produce utilized in the restaurants.
The restaurant managers and staff are obliged to ensure that they promote hygiene and best practices that ensure consumers’ safety. Therefore by trying to avoid causing harm and going against the various authorities guidelines, they prevent the risk of resulting to a potential foodborne illness by wrongly misinterpreting labels such as “Sell by,” “Use by, best before or best by,” and need up throwing consumable food (Royte). These confusing labels lead to unnecessary refrigerator purges, which increase the rate of food waste in the country resulting from restaurants.
However, with the problem of overbuying and food spoilage greatly influencing food wastage from restaurants, the consumers and restaurant employees and managers also significantly affect the condition that leads to the development of these, causing effects to food wastage. Considerably consumers and individual employees in the restaurant’s behaviors and beliefs attribute to these devastating amounts of daily food wasted in the country (Chandler). With the country’s changing attitudes on the need to manage food and reduce the food wastage significantly diminishing. Cultural behavior and practices change with a more adaptation of behaviors that greatly influence the overbuying and food spoilage in restaurants and by the consumers. There is a need to significantly rethink the issue to come up with multiple solutions to change the problem threatening to have a fatal effect in society and country.
Consequently, the restaurant’s food wastage in the country results from the lack of restaurant strategies in ensuring that no food is wasted by effective recycling and compositing of the leftover foods. The problem is becoming more costly to the individual and the country due to the environmental implications it causes by the production of methane gas, which increases the amount of greenhouses gas in the atmosphere impacting climate change. Climate change will significantly impact the country’s agricultural produce and farming and threaten food security substantially to the already food abundant population. Considerably, the food shortage problem is a humanitarian problem since most of the food throw away is consumable food, which could help many individuals face food insecurity in the country. It is so devastating to hear about a child or any adult going angry. Yet, we are recording tremendous amounts of food wastages which occupy a significant space in our landfill. The environmental implication and the cost individual loose due to food shortage should become the concrete basis for bringing an awakening of the population to start valuing food’s significance. This is not as quick and as cheap as it is in America since most countries are suffering from food shortages, not in a portion of its population; almost every individual in these countries faces food insecurity. Therefore considering the effects of food shortage form environmental impacts, health, and cost, individuals, should undertake significant efforts to change behaviors and beliefs to promote food management strategies.
Works cited
Chandler, Adam. “Why Americans Lead The World In Food Waste.” The Atlantic, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/american-food-waste/491513/.
“Common Causes Of And Solutions To Restaurant Food Waste – Recyclingworks Massachusetts.” Recycling works Massachusetts, 2018, https://recyclingworksma.com/common-causes-of-and-solutions-to-restaurant-food-waste/.
Royte, Elizabeth. “One-Third Of Food Is Lost Or Wasted: What Can Be Done.” Nationalgeographic.Com, 2014, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141013-food-waste-national-security-environment-science-ngfood/.
RTS. “Food Waste In America In 2020: Statistics & Facts | RTS”. Recycle Track Systems, 2020, https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/.