Redistribution of leftover food from municipal canteens in Sweden to avoid food waste - Environmental, social and economic effects

Sammanfattning: In 2015 the Swedish government signed the UN Agenda 2030 comprising of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and a total of 169 sub targets. Goal 12 target 3 reads as follows: “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.” Wasting eatable food effectively highlights all three parameters of the concept of sustainability; it is neither economically nor ethically defensible and it is a waste of natural resources. In Sweden the public canteens serving children, students and elderly within various municipal activities, generate food loss amounting to 73 000 tonnes annually. According to FAO food loss refers to the decrease of quantity or quality of food whilst food waste is the discarding and non-food related treatment of food that is safe for human consumption. The aim of this thesis was to investigate food loss from Swedish canteens and the share constituting of food waste. Research questions establishing the foundation of this work regarded food loss quantities, the share constituting of food waste which could be redistributed and environmental, social and economic effects from a potential redistribution. To answer the research questions a literature study, one interview, one more extensive and two complementing surveys and a case study were conducted. The goal was to present a suggestion on how overproduced food from municipal canteens could be redistributed, aiming at optimizing all three parameters of sustainability. Data from the larger survey was categorized based on whether the respondent answered from a municipal position or not, and further on the type of kitchen the respondents represented. A total of 121 attendants answered the survey, representing 84 municipalities. Thesis results imply annual food loss quantities varying from 3.5 kg per person for kitchens solely cooking, to 8.6 kg per person for attendants answering from a municipal position. For the average municipality, food loss quantities was estimated to 40 tonnes of which approximately 19 tonnes is suggested to be food waste. Resulting greenhouse gas emissions was calculated to 2.6 tonnes of CO2-eq. per year, corresponding to 0.002 % of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the municipality. The 19 tonnes of eatable food could have been served to approximately 58 500 persons and expenses avoided from reduced waste management costs would have corresponded to 5 500 SEK. It was concluded that a redistribution suggestion with optimized sustainability performance, solely based on thesis results, could not be given. This would require more profound research on both environmental, social and economic effects from the food waste. In line with the EU waste hierarchy, focus should be that of working preventively from generating food waste. It should also be emphasized that redistribution must never legitimize the overproduction of food. Conclusions from thesis results aret hat large food waste quantities are generated from Swedish public canteens. Food waste primarily arise from plate scrape off and from trays with food that have been up for service outside of the kitchen. It is believed, based on results from the larger survey, that canteen staff are unsure of what they may and may not do with leftovers to reduce food waste. To redistribute overproduced food from the municipal canteens would contribute to a more sustainable food system, even though environmental and economic gains are small.