Preliminary assessment of a methodology for determining food waste in primary school canteens

Reducing food losses and waste is increasingly seen as a main way to improve sustainability of food systems, both in itself and as a way to question and improve the efficiency of resource use. Numerous studies have stressed the need to improve data collection and analysis of main causes of food losses and waste particularly in the last parts of the food chain. The project REDUCE, financed by the Italian Ministry of Environment and Protection of Land and Sea, aims to improve data collection on waste in the last stages of food chains and to identify innovative solutions to reduce it. This paper presents the first results of a study developed as part of this project. The objective of this study is to devise an innovative methodology to assess food waste in school canteens that is at the same time accurate, easy to transpose, does not require external support, provides all the useful data on quantity and nutritional quality of food waste (to enable comparison of food intake in children with dietary recommendations such as the Dietary Guidelines for Italians) and involves all concerned actors: kitchen employees and teachers, as well as the pupils themselves, so that monitoring becomes an instrument of active learning.