Abstract

ARAUJO, Lillian  and  ROCHA, Ada. Assessment and Monitoring of School Lunch Plate Waste at Schools from the Municipality of Barcelos. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2017, n.8, pp.6-9. ISSN 2183-5985.  https://doi.org/10.21011/apn.2017.0802.

Introduction: Food waste is the amount of food that remains proper for consumption but that is discarded by human action or omission. Due to the enormous amount of food wasted worldwide this is a subject of increasing interest in the last years. In Portugal about 400,000 children attend to the 1st grade of basic education and most of them have lunch at school daily. The relevance of evaluating food waste in this scenario includes its effects on the environment, society and economy but particularly focusing on its nutritional consequences on children’s daily intake. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the extent of food waste in the school lunch provided for nursery children and 1st grade students in the Municipality of Barcelos, in Portugal. Methodology: Four schools totaling 293 students were involved in this research. This study was divided into three phases, the first was developed to quantify the food waste in schools, using the selective aggregate weighing. In the second phase an intervention was carried out to raise awareness of educators, students and canteen staff about food waste. And, in the third phase, the food waste was again quantified using the same procedure used in the first phase. Results: It was found that from the total amount of food produced in schools, 11,5% was wasted in the first stage and 11,2% in the second one. In schools without an intervention, the total amount of waste increased from 18,1% to 21,4%, while in schools where a sensitization action was taken, the amount of waste decreased from 32,4% to 28,2%. It was observed that the possibility of children leaving the canteen before consuming the whole meal as well as the presence of a small number of workers to accompany the meal are associated factors with high levels of food waste at school. Conclusions: In this study, the results show a decrease in the waste volume which may indicate that the awareness strategy about food waste may be used as potential strategy to reduce food waste in schools.

Keywords : Children; Food waste; School lunch; Awareness.

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