A Pilot Study on Food Waste Amount and Origin in a Small Shop

Abstract

On the basis of the annual monitoring, the situation in the selected food shop of the Coop retail chain was evaluated. More than half of the food waste was made up of fruits and vegetables (258 kg). The most often cause of its discard was the rot of fruits and vegetables (98%). Surprising findings were data on baked goods. Although baked goods are considered to be the most wasting food after fruits and vegetables, the opposite was found in the shop. For the whole year only 2 kg of baked goods were thrown away. The second most frequently food waste were dairy products (223 kg). Expired date of consumption has been identified as the most common cause of waste production for dairy products and dry goods (94%). According to the information, about 459 Mg of foodstuff was purchased in total in 2017 but only 483 kg of food was thrown away. Compared to the total cost of purchased food, the costs of the loss were minimal.