Title: 'Can food waste be reduced?' An investigation into food waste management in hospitality industry

Authors: Girish K. Nair; Nidhi Choudhary; Swati Prasad

Addresses: International Hospitality Management, Stenden University Qatar, Doha, Qatar ' WISDOM, Faculty of Management Studies, Banasthali University, Rajasthan, India ' International Hospitality Management, Stenden University Qatar, Doha, Qatar

Abstract: The scope of food wastage is wide. This research paper discusses the aspect of avoidable food wastage in hospitality industries in Qatar. The study seeks to find if the hotels can avoid food wastage through considering their food transportation infrastructure or by considering their food portioning while serving the food to the customers. It even seeks to find if the problem of food wastage in hotels can be trimmed if the consumers change their behaviour in terms of buying, preparing and storing food. Three prominently used concept of food waste management were used in hotel industries have been considered. The research methodology uses interpretivist paradigm using SEM to test the six hypotheses with a sample size of 210 managers chosen from 21 five star hotels. Implications have been drawn to benefit the strategic managers to enhance food waste reduction.

Keywords: food wastage; logistic issues; individual behaviour; food portioning; hospitality industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHEM.2019.109953

International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management, 2019 Vol.2 No.2, pp.135 - 154

Received: 06 Jul 2018
Accepted: 20 Feb 2019
Published online: 30 Sep 2020 *

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