Abstract
Background: Food waste is one of the global issues affecting South Africa and about 10.3 million tons (about a third of the food available) of food and beverages are wasted per year. Food waste occurs throughout the food system, starting from agricultural production to serving consumers, and has a negative impact on the economy and the environment. Researchers have focused on food waste in homes, but studies on food waste from small business food premises are lacking, even though the small business industry is critically important to the South African economy. This study aimed to investigate the causes, impact, and management of perishable and non-perishable food waste amongst selected small business premises at Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM), Gauteng, South Africa.
Methodology: A quantitative research approach using a cross-sectional study design and an estimated sample size of 165 participants was used for this study. For this study, a convenience sampling technique was used. The study was conducted amongst selected small business premises at Emfuleni Local Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa. The study population of this study was all managers and supervisors from selected small business premises selling perishable and non-perishable foodstuffs within the jurisdiction of Emfuleni Local Municipality. Data was collected by means of self-administered questionnaires. The data was then analysed by running descriptive analysis and frequencies and spearman’s r correlation coefficient test using IBM SPSS version 29.0. Graphs and tables were used to present the findings of the study.
Results and discussion: The results of the study revealed that 58.4% were male participants and 41.6% were female participants. 27.9% of participants generate perishable food waste, 6.6% of participants generate non-perishable food waste while the remaining 65.4% of the participants generate both perishable and non-perishable food waste. Most premises generate both perishable and non-perishable food waste because they sell both perishable and non-perishable foodstuffs. The results revealed that 27.0% of participants indicated that they generate more than 20kg of waste in a week, 8.8% of participants generate between 16-20 kg of food waste in a week, 10.9% of participants indicated that they generate between 11-15 kg of food waste, 16.8 of participants
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indicated that they generate between 5-10kg and the remaining 36.5% of participants indicated that they generate less than 5kg of food waste in a week. Most participants generate less food waste because they have adopted strategies such as stock rotation to reduce food waste. The results also revealed that to a very large extent, 13.9% of participants indicated that food waste is caused by expiry, 13.1% by power outages, 11.1% by damage,10.9% by overstocking, 9.5% by rotting, 5.8% by fridge failure and 2.9% participants indicated that to a large extent food waste is caused by poor stock rotation. Some foods remain in storerooms and on shelves for too long due to overstocking and end up expiring and being discarded as food waste. Damages occurs during the receiving of stock, during packing of foodstuffs on the shelves, and some damages are caused by customers while shopping inside the premises. Power outages caused by load-shedding in South Africa is a serious concern for small business premises as it affects the cold chain which results in food being unfit for human consumption and being discarded as food waste.
Participants indicated that the greatest impact of food waste is loss of by profit (29.4%); loss of food (25.5%); loss of income (17.5%); loss of stock (11.0%); loss of jobs (8.8%); food poisoning (5.8%). 27.7% of the participants indicated that the municipality environmental health practitioners assist with the safe disposal of their food waste; 20.4% of participants indicated that they do their own disposal of food waste at the landfill site; 36.5% of participants indicated that they dispose of their food waste together with general waste; 29.9% of participants indicated that they dispose of the food waste by feeding to animals, while 19.3% indicated other options of disposing of their food waste. 58.1% of participants indicated that they have insurance to compensate for food waste while 41.9% indicated that they do not have insurance to compensate for food waste.
Recommendations and conclusions: The understanding of and awareness on food waste need to be enhanced at retail and consumer level. This is key to changing behaviour towards the reduction of food waste. Awareness campaigns can assist small business premises in implementing strategies to avoid or reduce food waste. Environmental health practitioners must also provide health education to small business premises on the management and safe disposal of food waste. Small business premises
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need to realise the importance of having insurance to compensate them after suffering losses due to food waste. Knowing the value of the wasted food and why it is being discarded is important in establishing ways to reduce food waste in small business premises. Food waste has a negative impact on the economy of the country as it results in loss of profit, lack of jobs, and loss of income.
Keywords: Food waste, Perishable food waste, Non-perishable food waste, Small business premises