The need to reduce food waste is of growing concern to the restaurant industry, as businesses move to improve profit margins and promote habits of sustainable consumption among their diners. The issue is particularly relevant for buffet restaurants, as the ‘all-you-can-eat’ concept often leads patrons to fill their respective plates with more food that they can handle. A study involving an IFTM scholar looked into the topic, concluding that gender could have an impact on the effectiveness of campaigns to reduce food waste.
The research – involving IFTM Assistant Professor Dr. Andy Kuo Chen Feng in partnership with Dr. Shih Yahui from Chung Hua University in the Taiwan region – was conducted over a 3-week period at a buffet restaurant at a university in the Taiwan region. It measured average food waste per patron, a metric called by the researchers ‘average plate waste’.
After an initial 1-week ‘control’ period, an ‘education and communication’ strategy using posters advocating food waste reduction was introduced at the buffet restaurant in the second week of the study. It was followed in the third week by a ‘coercion’ strategy, with a label placed on each table informing patrons that a fine – equivalent to nearly 60 percent of the price of the admission fee to the buffet – would be charged if too much food was wasted.
Results showed overall average plate waste was slightly down in the ‘education’ week but it was “reduced dramatically” in the ‘coercion’ week, noted the authors. Females’ average plate waste was greater than that of male restaurant users for all 3 weeks, they added.
The comments were featured in the research paper “Gender differences in the effects of education and coercion on reducing buffet plate waste”. It was published in 2016 in the Journal of Foodservice Business Research.
The study used data on food waste relating to 581 patrons of the buffet. The food waste was collected by research assistants, who then labelled it by gender of patron and by food type and weighed it.
‘Education’ versus ‘coercion’
In the 3 weeks of the study, “the overall average plate waste… decreased all the way down from 94.3 grams (the ‘control’ week), 93.1 grams (the ‘education and communication’ week), to 43.8 grams (the ‘coercion’ week),” the authors noted.
Patron gender had an impact on the effectiveness of the strategies to reduce food waste, the researchers pointed out. The average food waste for male participants in the research was 54.7 grams in the ‘control’ week, jumping to 81.5 grams – a 49-percent increase – during the ‘education and communication’ week. The figure dropped sharply to 35.1 grams during the week in which a ‘coercion’ strategy was applied at the buffet restaurant.
The trend was different for female patrons: overall average plate waste went down from 131.9 grams in the first week to 107.9 grams in the second, and to 55.9 grams in the third week. However, food waste for some food types – like meat, desserts, and fruits – increased in the second week of the research.
The researchers noted that the ‘coercion’ strategy was the most efficient in terms of promoting food waste reduction. “However, negative impacts (e.g., decrease of customer retention or loyalty) might occur, and deserve attention from buffet restaurateurs,” wrote Dr. Kuo and Dr. Shih. Customers “are still likely to expect” there will not be any “food regulations while dining in buffet restaurants,” they added. They stated that “negative customer perceptions” might partially explain some of the increases in food waste during the week in which an ‘education and communication’ strategy was used for the research.
“More creative practices (such as smaller plates) could play more effective roles in reducing plate waste than penalty or persuasion,” the 2 researchers suggested.
Dr. Kuo and Dr. Shih also noted that, among the food groups tracked by their study, the highest levels of waste were related to grains, regardless of patron gender, although average female grain food waste was higher than that recorded for males in each of the 3 weeks of research.
“Customers could be asked by staff if a smaller grain portion size is adequate for them,” the researchers suggested, indicating a way to reduce grain-related food waste. They also advised reducing the number of grain-based main courses on offer at buffet lines, eventually replacing some with more popular dishes from other categories.
Food waste prevention for buffet restaurants “involves tracking which dishes generally create more leftovers either on the counter or plate,” pointed out the researchers. Based on such information, management should decide whether to prepare fewer (or serve smaller) portions of dishes that typically generate the most waste or replace them with more popular options. These options might be an alternative to simply continuing to discard the leftovers, concluded Dr. Kuo and Dr. Shih.
More info
Dr. Shih Yahui is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Hospitality Management of Chung Hua University in the Taiwan region. She holds a PhD from Texas Tech University, in Texas, United States.
ChenFeng Kuo and Yahui Shih: “Gender differences in the effects of education and coercion on reducing buffet plate waste”, Journal of Foodservice Business Research, Volume 19, Issue 3, pages 223-235, 2016.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15378020.2016.1175896
