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In the last decade, in many European Countries more and more measures have been initiated aiming at the prevention of food losses and wastes along the entire value chain. In order to evaluate or monitor such important measures it is crucial to obtain quantitative information on generated food waste amounts, subsequently enabling the quantitative evaluation of the measure’s outcomes and efficiency. Currently there is a paucity of quantitative information, particularly on food losses that are directly generated during harvesting processes. Up to date, no method is available or standardised aiming at the in-situ or on-site quantification of food losses during harvest. Using the example of the potato harvest, this study presents a practical approach for determining potato losses. To test the applicability of the developed method, on-site measurements were conducted directly on the field at five different locations in Austria and Germany. Our method enables the quantification of food losses based on defined areas along the harvested potato rows, where the analyser manually collects potatoes during their harvest. Hereby, two types of potato losses needs to be considered: non-harvested, under-sized potatoes that remain under the earth and the harvested ones, which are rejected on-site because of quality requirements regarding their size, shape, and state of health. Our study shows that between 1 and 9% of field losses (based on yield potential) can be generated during the potato harvest. In future, this method may be the basis for standardised protocols in order to be able to derive cultivar-specific benchmarks and, consequently, to develop measures for preventing food losses. In general, more case studies and evidence-based ground-up measurements on other cultivars and for other regions are needed focusing on the on-site quantification of post-harvest losses.
In a pilot study, we wanted to influence the food selection of employees in a pediatric clinic bistro aiming to increase the sale of “healthy” grain buns (number and proportion of all sold buns). During basic assessment, the mean weekly sale of grain buns was 98 (52.3%) and in the second week of highlighting them on a green napkin under a transparent hood (intervention 1) reached 124 (54.6%). However, just when starting intervention 2 (position in front of the display), the bistro was closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Thus, necessary public health measures stopped our interventional public health experiment.
Public catering has become increasingly important in recent years. With increasing annual customers, the sector’s impact on the environment is also growing continuously. At the same time, public catering offers a lever to promote sustainable nutrition that has rarely been used so far. Small changes in kitchen practices and food offers can thus be multiplied into a significant positive impact on environmental challenges, such as climate change or loss of biodiversity due to the large
number of servings. In contrast to private households, management decisions in public catering can influence the food-
related environmental impact of thousands of customers. This article deals with the nationwide level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource use in the German public catering segment “business” and its saving potentials by different
scenarios of unsupported and supported recipe revision. In this paper, we define "unsupported" as the intuitive optimization of recipes by employees of public catering businesses. In contrast, “supported” approaches had to meet specific target goals,
for example of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung; engl. German Nutrition Society or the sustainable level. Specifically, we will test how (A) an unsupported recipe revision, (B) a recipe revision based on dietary recommendations and (C)
a recipe revision using scientific guidance affect the environmental impact of a dish. As a methodological framework, an online survey of public catering companies was conducted as well as a scenario analysis at menu level and at nationwide
level. The results are based on empirical data on the one hand, and on extrapolations on the other. The results show that the nationwide implementation of recipe revision according to scientific guidance—such as concrete target goals for the GHG emissions per serving—can save up to 44% of resource use in the German business catering sector (which corresponds to 3.4 million tons of resources per year) and as much as 40% of GHG emissions (0.6 tons GHG emissions per year). Even in
the scenario of unsupported recipe revision, GHG and resource savings of up to 20% can be realized. The results show that public catering can reduce its material and carbon footprint by 20% overnight. Moreover, the findings show indications for the sustainable transformation of public catering. Nevertheless, it must be noted that these are some first steps of the transformation, which will require further changes with even greater impacts and political activities.