Sustainable school catering - Reduction of school food waste and modelling the reuse of unserved food

Project ID: PD142198
Granting authority:  National Research, Development and Innovation Office
Duration: October 2022 – September 2025

Summary of the project

Due to increasing food consumption resulting from the growth of the world's population and the widening of the middle class, food security is at risk all over the world. To have enough food for everyone, it is not enough to increase food production, we must also make efforts to reduce food waste.
Nowadays, more and more people and organizations are working on ways to reduce food waste. Literature data and our own surveys show that one of the largest food waste producers is the children’s catering, about 30-40% of produced food become waste.The problem is particularly important because in Hungary, more than 1 million children take part in school meals every day.
As in most European countries, Hungary also has regulations in order to regulate what goes on children's plates. But in the end the pupils decide if they consume or not the given meal. Meanwhile, there is a huge amount of food waste generated in school, suggesting that the system is not working properly. In Hungary there is no scientific survey on what children eat and what they do not eat. The goal of this project is to lay the basis of a sustainable school catering system. Based on quantitative analysis of primary data we will identify the factors that influence the efficiency of the school catering system and the amount of food waste.
This project will focus on the cooperation of the catering service players, the amount of plate waste, the recycling of unserved food, the consumer satisfaction and the change of attitudes.

Keywords

waste management, food waste, food reuse, public catering