Elsevier

Waste Management

Volume 113, 15 July 2020, Pages 439-446
Waste Management

Factors influencing food waste during lunch of fourth-grade school children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.06.023Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Food waste on school lunch is affected by individual, social and environmental factors.

  • The presence of teachers during the meal period is associated with low plate waste.

  • Mid-morning snacks influence food waste at the school canteen.

  • Meals sensory characteristics satisfaction influences food waste at the school canteen.

Abstract

This study aims to explore the factors that influence plate waste at lunches served in primary schools. Data was collected for all fourth-grade children attending 21 primary schools from the city of Porto (Portugal) (n = 463). Plate waste was evaluated by the weighing method and factors influencing plate waste were collected by observation of menu and canteen characteristics and through the application of a questionnaire to children aiming to evaluate factors related to preferences and dietary patterns. Logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of plate waste. It was observed that fish menus and composed dishes showed a higher tendency for increased plate waste. However, this effect was not observed when adjusted for other variables. Soups without pulses and blended soups were less likely to be discarded by children. The presence of the teacher during meals and the possibility for children to leave the canteen whenever they wish, protected both the main dish and the soup from being wasted. A higher number of children in the canteen was associated with increased soup waste. As expected, children more pleased with the sensory characteristics of the main dish and soup were less likely to waste food. Children who consumed high-saturated fat content mid-morning snacks were more likely to waste soup.

The main factors associated with plate waste were related to the presence of teachers during the mealtime, school meal policies and the meals’ sensory characteristics. Additionally, soup waste was determined by its composition, mid-morning snacks and the number of children in the canteen.

Introduction

Food waste reduction is identified as an important measure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in 2015 by the United Nations to be achieved in 2030 (United Nations, 2015). In developed countries, food waste occurs mostly at the consumption stage, with school canteens having a great contribution to this problem. Additionally, school children will be future adult consumers and their habits regarding food waste should be modulated to achieve a more environmental-friendly attitude (Derqui et al., 2018).

Several recent reports found high plate waste values at school canteens (Chapman et al., 2019, Garcia-Herrero et al., 2019, Marshall et al., 2019, Shanks et al., 2017). Different researches carried out in the United States of America showed that plate waste values in primary school lunches range from 2% to 49%, according to the evaluated food, which could be explained by children’s food preferences (Cohen et al., 2013, Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2013).

In Europe, different countries had been focusing their attention on this problem. Eriksson et al., identified an average of 75 g of food waste, corresponding to 23% of the lunch served in Swedish school canteens (Eriksson et al., 2017). In the United Kingdom, Haroun et al. observed that 30–40% of the fruit and vegetables served at primary school canteens were wasted (Haroun et al., 2011). In Italian schools, food waste values ranged 20–29% of prepared meal (Boschini et al., 2018, Garcia-Herrero et al., 2019). Spanish researchers estimated that overall food waste ranged between 60 and 100 g per pupil per day (Derqui et al., 2018).

Unfortunately, in Portugal, few quantitative studies of plate waste in school canteens have been carried out. Results published in scientific literature showed plate waste values near or higher than 30% (Campos et al., 2011, Dinis et al., 2013, Liz Martins et al., 2013, Liz Martins et al., 2016). It was also observed that the recommended portions were excessive and inappropriate for school children, resulting in plate waste values of 56% for fish dishes and 32% for meat dishes (Dinis et al., 2013).

High plate waste values at school canteens should be a matter of concern for governments since children spend most of their day at school and for most of them, the school lunch is the most important daily meal. Besides nutritional consequences, food waste also has an economic, environmental and social impact (Buzby and Guthrie, 2002, Food and Agriculture Organization, 2013, Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2013).

Despite improvements in school meals referred by several authors, excessive plate waste may indicate that children are not fully benefiting from the nutrients offered by school meals (Baik and Lee, 2009, Cohen et al., 2013, Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014) or may be an indicator of the inadequacy of food portions to the target group (Buzby and Guthrie, 2002).

The main factors affecting plate waste in schools include portions’ inadequacy to children’s nutritional needs and appetite (Buzby and Guthrie, 2002, Dinis et al., 2013, Yoon and Kim, 2012), food preferences (Caporale et al., 2009, De Moura, 2007, Fildes et al., 2015), food appearance and taste (Tuorila et al., 2015, Wansink et al., 2013, Yoon and Kim, 2012, Zampollo et al., 2012), desire for free time to socialize (Bergman et al., 2004, Zandian et al., 2012), insufficient time to eat (Bergman et al., 2004, Zandian et al., 2012) and the availability of more appealing competitive foods. (Buzby and Guthrie, 2002, Templeton et al., 2005). Nevertheless, these factors have been evaluated in isolation and the combined effect of the different variables has not been yet established. Identification of combined factors affecting plate waste in school lunches is essential to develop successful strategies to reduce it.

The present study aims to explore factors influencing plate waste in lunches served at primary schools.

Section snippets

Ethics

Consent for this study was obtained from the Municipality of Porto, the School’s Councils and catering company.

Approval from the Portuguese Ministry of Education was obtained – Project No. 0252800001. All the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki were complied. Written consent from children’s parents and consent from children involved were previously obtained.

Sampling

The present case study focused on public schools of the city of Porto, in the North of Portugal. This municipality has about 262.013

Results

Sociodemographic, economic and anthropometric characteristics of the children involved in the present study are presented in Table 2.

Mean and standard deviations (SD) of plate waste for the different components of the school lunch are presented in Table 3.

Results of univariate and multivariate logistic regressions showing the factors associated with having high plate waste for main dish and soup are presented in Table 4, Table 5, respectively.

Discussion

The present study provides an overview of factors influencing plate waste in lunches served in primary schools. A model was developed to adjust data for the effects of different variables related to meals served, canteen characteristics, children’s socioeconomic and anthropometric data, dietary characteristics and satisfaction with meals. Our results showed that the presence of teachers during mealtime, the possibility of children leaving the canteen whenever they want and satisfaction with

Conclusions

The main factors identified as positively influencing the reduction of plate waste during lunch in primary schools were: the presence of teachers during mealtime, the possibility of children leaving the canteen whenever they want and the level of satisfaction with the sensory characteristics of meals for both main dish and soup. Additional factors were identified as promoters of wasting soup, namely its composition the presence of pulses or whole vegetable pieces as well as the consumption of

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of UIDB/50016/2020, UIDB/05748/2020 and UIDP/05748/2020. Authors thank José B. Cunha from Oporto British School for the English grammar and structure revision of the manuscript.

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