Evaluation of food wastefulness served at lunch time at a University Restaurant in state of Piauí, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate food wastefulness served at lunch time in a university restaurant in the state of Piaui. This is a cross-sectional and qualitative study. Data collection was performed for five consecutive days, by weighing the ready-made foods and the discarded remains at the trays return location. The values made it possible to calculate the rest intake index, the per capita meal and rest-ingestion, the total food intake and how many people could have been fed with the rest. The results showed rest-ingestion index of 16.76, classified as bad. The per capita of the meal and the rest-ingestion were high, being respectively 0.812kg and 167.6g. On average, 119.00kg of food was wasted every day, which would feed about 156 people. The studied University Restaurant presented considerably high levels of waste in all the studied days, revealing the necessity of interventions in the planning of the distribution and carrying out of educative activities with the diners in the sense of awakening the conscience of the same ones as their responsibility before the waste of foods .