After exploring the food waste consumers drive at home, let’s take a look at the same issue we cause outside our home spaces. Eating out is no longer reserved for special occasions as a 2018 survey conducted in Singapore found that about a quarter of Singaporeans eat out daily and that number increases to 55% when expanded to a weekly basis (CNA, 2018). While this might be reflective of a rising disposable income among locals, it also creates another issue of contention in regards to food waste.
When eating out, the determination of portion size is largely taken from the consumers in most settings. Unless clearly requested, most out-of-home eating establishments offer similar portion sizes for their customers. Unfortunately, not all consumers have a similar eating appetite. And this problem is not helped by the increasing sizes of plates and extensive menu size (Ravandi and Jovanovic, 2019), leading to over-ordering and over-consumption. In fact, 17% of meals served in out-of-home eating establishments are left uneaten in the US alone as accounted by a Cornell University Food and Brand Lab study (Bloom, 2010). Even in Singapore, it is not uncommon to see unfinished plates and dishes in hawker centres or restaurants with consumers giving various reasons from disliked tastes to ordering too much. Most of these food items are then discarded into the waste, to go to our incineration plants. You can watch a video below to see how just one simple change in a food hall in University of California (Santa Barbara) has taken to reduce their food waste based on portion sizes (Vox, 2017).
Well, apart from reducing portion sizes, there is another tool that consumers themselves can take part in with full autonomy: Packing leftovers or commonly known as “dabao” in Singlish. Such a simple step can help to reduce food waste significantly but yet we, as consumers, largely fail to do so. A study by the Singapore Environment Council (2019) highlighted that about 44% of Singaporeans still left their edible leftovers at the restaurants. Such consumer behaviours can be easily changed with a change in mindset with how we treat our food. This video below is the part of the video series that was showcased in the previous post and looks into some habits consumers have when eating out (CleanGreenSingapore, 2019)! Have a look!
Now, we hope you have seen how some of our behaviours as consumers eventually lead to the generation of food waste, both domestically and when we eat out. This further adds to the food waste generated in the prior phases of food productions as well. In fact, food waste alone would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases if it were a country (FAO, 2015). It is time for us to be more conscious of our behaviours and make tweaks, despite how big or small they might be, to make this world a less wasteful one!
Trailing off,
Jade and Ridzuan
References
Bloom, J. (2010). American wasteland : how America throws away nearly half of its food (and what we can do about it). Cambridge, Ma: Da Capo Press.
CleanGreenSingapore (2019). Zero Waste Food Challenge: Ep 2 – Storing & Ordering Better. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UDQh75MOWo&ab_channel=CleanGreenSingapore [Accessed 23 Oct. 2020].
CNA (2018). More locals are eating out, ordering food deliveries and shopping online for meal kits, according to the latest Nielsen Out-of-Home Dining Survey. CNA. [online] 21 Aug. Available at: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/lifestyle/close-to-one-in-four-singaporeans-eat-out-daily-survey-10636788 [Accessed 23 Oct. 2020].
FAO (2015). Food wastage footprint & Climate Change Global food loss and waste. [online] Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-bb144e.pdf.
Ravandi, B. and Jovanovic, N. (2019). Impact of plate size on food waste: Agent-based simulation of food consumption. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, [online] 149, pp.550–565. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335094922_Impact_of_plate_size_on_food_waste_Agent-based_simulation_of_food_consumption [Accessed 8 Jul. 2019].
Singapore Environment Council (2019). Advancing a Circular Economy for Food: Key Drivers and Recommendations to Reduce Food Loss and Waste in Singapore Study by Singapore Environment Council (SEC). [online] Available at: https://sec.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/SEC_Food-Loss-Study.pdf [Accessed 22 Oct. 2020].
Vox (2017). Food waste is the world’s dumbest problem. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlxySFrkIM&t=301s&ab_channel=Vox [Accessed 23 Oct. 2020].
