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1. Introduction
Restaurants are socially and culturally important. From a social perspective they provide a space where individuals can relax and enjoy various forms of interpersonal exchange (Gustafsson et al., 2006; Riley, 1994), while the act of consuming cuisine from different countries affords the average person a way to engage with cultures beyond those they would usually be exposed to (Beldona et al., 2010; Riley, 1994). The restaurant industry is also economically significant employing “approximately 9 per cent of the workforce in developed nations” (Combs et al., 2011, p. 1099). Less well known is the fact that the industry is environmentally damaging. It is unsurprising, when one considers the environmental implications associated with mining or manufacturing, that restaurants have failed to receive much attention from environmentalists. Nonetheless, the pendulum is beginning to swing.
Taken cumulatively the issue of food loss and food waste, which is especially prevalent in the restaurant industry, is beginning to attract international attention and be recognised as a source of social, economic and environmental concern. For example, Kummu et al. (2012) argue that food losses along the supply chain negatively impact the use of resources including freshwater and cropland and that an additional billion people could be fed if crop losses were halved. Similarly reporting on an Italian study, Vittuari et al. (2016) have found that in 2011 alone 20 per cent of the energy output of all food was wasted and that improved food system efficiency could contribute to reducing the global reliance on fossil fuels. The significance of food waste was further demonstrated by Cuéllar and Webber (2010, p. 6464) who, in a US study, found “the energy embedded in wasted food [represented] approximately 2 per cent of [the total] annual energy consumption in the United States”. The results of studies such as those listed above are of great concern and highlight the need for action across all stages of the food supply chain including in restaurants and food service settings that, as observed by Charlebois et al. (2015), have traditionally been responsible for the disposal of huge quantities of usable food into garbage, which translates into substantial economic and environmental expense (Ferreira et al., 2013). The extent of the problem within this setting is...