Linkages between Food Waste and Wasteful Consumer Behaviour: A study on catering industry in Surat on the perspective of SDG 2030
Abstract
Surat is one of the cleanest, dynamic cities located in the western part of India, which is 2nd largest city of Gujarat in terms of area and known as “The Silk City,” “The Diamond City,” ”The Green City”. Due to its 0% unemployment and highest average annual household income is also ranked 4th fastest growing city in the world. As more income, more expense and on the basis of the same, Surat is taken as the area of study and author tried exploring the relationship between food waste and wasteful consumer behaviour. As per the (FAO, 2017), the term ‘food waste’ is defined as “the discard of edible foods at retail and consumer levels.” Study was conducted on 173 consumers on the age group of 17-55 years (male-77, female- 95, and one preferred not to disclose) in July 2021 where most of them belong to the annual income group of 8-10 lacs. Although, respondents were from financially sound family although they were not regular visitor of the restaurant (41% visited the restaurant only once a month). Most of the consumers were in the age group of 17-22 years where it was found that consumers doesn’t want to waste the food but mainly due to bigger portion size and quality of the food not as per the expectation found responsible for waste of food, which can be reduced when cleaned plate acknowledged by manager in terms of giving discount and thank you card to the guest which can easily be done. It was also found that a lack of awareness about environmental damage can be used as a tool toward go-green concept can be useful in mitigating guest. It was also found that consumer intention can be crucial in mitigating food waste. Therefore, all stakeholders (consumer, restauranteur and government) should come together in a noble cause of food waste mitigation.
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- 2021-10-04 (3)
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