Reduction of Food Wastages in Restaurants in the UK - Coursework Example

Reduction of Food Wastages in Restaurants in the UK 1.0 .Executive Summary This paper focuses on food wastages in U.K, both in households and in restaurants. Food wastages are problems encountered not by the U.K alone but by the United States and Europe as well. Food wastes is an ongoing problem as the food that go to the bins could have saved billions of malnourished children in the world, create environmental problems and generate unnecessary costs on the part of businesses. This concern leads us to formulate a social marketing plan to change the scenario of food wastes. We plan to engage the cooperation of the government, the business owners and consumers to participate in the program. To implement this plan, we will engage in partnership with a non-profitable environmental organization in UK. We figure out that this will redound to the benefit of the community and the benefits the community will reap outweigh their efforts and costs. Budgets, implementing plans are still under discussions, but we plan to start in 2015. Target of the program is to get the participation of 20% of UK hospitality sectors in UK by 2016, increasing in percentage yearly thereafter. We will also use the same marketing techniques, but will implement it using social marketing procedures that is more in behavior change. What we strive to accomplish is to change behavior of businesses and households in seeking ways to reduce food wastages thru social marketing. 1.0 Background, purpose and focus The problem of wastes every year is a threatening problem to the government as inefficient use of resources costs businesses (restaurants) and households’ money, and environmental damage. As such, food wastages are seen as a problem globally. This issue is significant as the amount of food wasted by UK, US, and Europe are enough to feed nearly one billion malnourished children in the world. (Tristan Stuart, 2009). Stuart claims that an “estimated 20 to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected even before they reach the shops - mostly because they do not match the supermarkets' excessively strict cosmetic standards.” There is also a need to consider the costs of production that goes in producing these foods are only wasted into the drain. There is also a need to think of our environment that is slowly being degraded by simultaneous factors, food wastes being one of them. In this context, there is a need to critically envision out long term solutions to minimize food wastes. One such long term solution is to encourage people to change behavior through the persuasion of social marketing Purpose of the study is to be able to present a program that will reduce food wastes in UK restaurants and households. . Quantitative analysis through secondary sources of information from published literatures will be used to formulate a solution to the food wastage problem. 2.0 Situation analysis 3.1 SWOT Analysis for societal issue STRENGTHS Presence of government policies and regulation assures companies of government support. It influences policy for a positive change The campaign answers the priorities of the greater population Profit goes to society and consumers Cooperation of organizations with similar goal could be sought Weaknesses Increased marketing costs e.g. increased cost in advertisements and public relations. Campaigns take longer to change behavior Community responsibility to take behavioral change Opportunity Contribute to a healthy environment. Benefits outweigh costs in the long run. Design of cost effective program is needed. Savings on resources to be realized Contributes to sustainability of resources. Exercise of social responsibility and development of competence of personnel is acquired. Threats Change of behavior does not happen overnight. Customers are not motivated, community/businesses responsibility are difficult to motivate 4.0 Key learning from similar efforts and additional exploratory market research 4.1 Severity of wastage Food wastes are one of the main issue plaguing restaurants in UK as it weighs a significant amount in production cost. The average cost of food waste to business is around £0.97 per meal £682 million per year or £3,500 per tonne which includes cost of food pre-procurement, labour, utilities, and waste-related management costs. (Wrap 2008). According to CSR News Europe that cited the Sustainable Restaurants Association (CSR News Europe), statistics show that a diner in an average restaurant in UK can generate almost 45% kilogram food waste through the food preparation process, spoilage 21%, and leftovers 34%. (Appendix 1) In UK, households wastes about 5.7 tons of food every year, which according to Wraps go to wastes collected as garbage. Some of these are recycled, but most go to landfills that create methane gas, while left-over are fed to animals, or drained to the sink. Wraps(2008) stated that the 4.1 million tones or 61% of food thrown away could be avoided and could be eaten if it had been better managed. Examples are vegetable peelings, meat carcasses, and tea bags. Others which people chose not to eat are bread crusts, and potato skins Household food waste in U.K by percentage is shown in Appendix 2 Appendix 2. Household food waste Source Rebecca Smithers, 2013 According to Wrap, potato comes as the largest food waste 49%, followed by bread 328,000 tonnes a year, apples, 190,000, fish and meat 161,000 tonnes. LRS Waste Consultancy estimates if an average restaurant can cut down 20% of food waste, it would be able to save 20% of food wastes, could save £ 150 to £1700 per year that is a reduction of 400 kilogram of waste. This can help each restaurant to increase profits and improve its Corporate Social Responsibility. ` 4.2 Costs to public The costs to the public of wastages as reported by WRAP (2008) is £20.8 billion of good food thrown away. That is equivalent to £420 of avoidable food for each household every year. The food thrown-away whole and unopened cost more than £2.3. billion a year, while unopened fruits costs UK households £570 million, unopened vegetables £250 million and unopened bakery items £250 million. Overall, the food thrown away by households, per WRAP report amounts to at least £l950 million a year. WRAP observed that all the people unconsciously waste food, and on the average each one wastes 70 kg. of avoidable food a year. Each household unknowingly throw away 88kg. of avoidable food per year. Accordingly, people wastes are composed of food left on the plates (1,255,000 tonnes equivalent to £3.3 billion; expired its dates (808,000 tonnes worth £2.2 billion; tasted bad, looked and smelt bad, 750,000 tons worth £1.8billion; went mouldy 467,000 tonnes worth £96 million and left over from cooking 360,000tonnes worth £830 million. (WRAP 2008) Foods that are often out of date are bread, cheese, eggs, fresh meat and fish, salads and condiments. Foods that go mouldy are fresh fruits and food that tasted bad are milk, while left over are found in pasta and rice. 4.3 Government policies The government on its part responded on the crisis by issuing policies to support the avoid food wastes program. . UK gov. said the government has created the Waste Prevention Program for England which is: is intended to encourage businesses to contribute to a more sustainable economy by building waste reduction into design, offering alternative business models and delivering new and improved products and services encourage a culture of valuing resources by making it easier for people and businesses to find out how to reduce their waste, to use products for longer, repair broken items, and enable reuse of items by others help businesses recognize and act upon potential savings through better resource efficiency and preventing waste, to realize opportunities for growth support action by central and local government, businesses and civil society to capitalize on these opportunities Source: Gov.uk, 2014 Launched in May 2014, government will award people with creative ideas for preventing waste. Award covers three areas, first is the prevention of food wastes. This area particularly covers businesses in the food and drinks sector (restaurants); next is recycling to “improve the quality of recycling collected from homes and businesses” and last, to “create a stronger market for recycled materials - better quality materials will compete better on the domestic and international markets, and attract higher and more stable prices”; and making businesses responsible for what they produce. e.g. batteries, packaging, vehicles, etc. Other legislations concerning waste management are still in the pipeline or under study. (Gov.uk, 2014) 5.0 Target Audiences 5.1 Priority targets Priority targets for our proposed programs are restaurants and households situated in U.K. U.K as of 2014 has a population of 63,742,977 (CIAWorld Factbook, 2014). Accordingly, UK has 100% improved drinking source and sanitation facilities. Relevant to our study is the prevalence of 26.9% obesity of population, that ranks as 43rd among the countries worldwide. The population has 99% literacy. The total number of restaurants in U.K in 2005, according to the FEDREST (2014), are 26,416 serving 734 million meals at value £7.61 bn including drinks. In 2010, same source reported ,there were 420,034 catering outlets, (restaurants, catering and canteens), with 112,769 enterprises employing 1,415,000.( FEDREST, 2014,par.4) 5.2 Market research findings providing a rationale for targeted audience, including factors such as size, problem incidence, problem severity, defensiveness, reachability, potential responsiveness to marketing mix elements, incremental costs, and organizational match, relative to the plan’s purpose and area of focus. Targeted audience for our proposal will segmented according to priorities. Appendix 3 below show pubs and restaurants combined, generate more wastes than hotels and quick service restaurants. The size problem incidence and severity are more pronounced in these segments and potential responsiveness will be easy to develop because of cost consciousness of business. Appendix 3. UK Hospitality Sector food waste going to landfill WRAP estimated UK hospitality businesses spend around £1.02 a year buying food that is only wasted. (Gov.uk, 2014) Report goes on to say that £6.6 million worth of food could be saved if they were managed properly. 6.0 Behavior Objectives and Goals 6.1 Behaviors that target audience(s) will be influenced to adopt (e.g. planting native plants), ones that are single and simple with lowest current penetration, highest willingness, and most potential impact. Cost consciousness and eating habits are two behaviors we want to change with our target audiences. For instance, we would like to develop cost consciousness to restaurant owners by conducting an education campaign of effective food management. By doing so, they can monitor the right sizes and proportions needed in the servings. This will need training of personnel particularly the chefs who are pinpointed to be the cause of large servings. We would like also to correct eating habits of customers by breaking down the food portions. In a report of Nancy Hellmich, USA Today (2006) most restaurants are serving out portions that are two or four times bigger than the government’s recommended size. As portions increase the obesity tandem also increases. According to Hellmich, people believe the amount of food served in restaurants influences how much people eat, and that portion is hard to consume for people who observe diet, hence waste is created. Survey conducted to 300 chefs in Pennsylvania cited by Hellmich showed that the following factors influence portion sizes of food in restaurants: presentation of food 70%, food costs 65%, customer expectations 52%, size of plate 43%, competition with other restaurants, plate waste(uneaten) 30%, and calorie content 16%. 6.2 Smart (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals quantifying desired behavior outcomes as well as changes in knowledge, beliefs, behavior, and intent Within our limited resources, we would like to reach 20% of existing restaurants and pubs in UK by 2016 to achieve a 75% change of behavior and knowledge of business owners and personnel. The percentage increases yearly as the project progresses, eventually covering all of the hospitality sectors in UK. 7.0 Influential others 7.1 Perceived barriers and costs associated with adopting the desired behavior Perceived barriers of complete implementation is the cost of training personnel in monitoring and evaluation on the part of the organization. And training of restaurant’s personnel. Likewise it motivating customers to change eating behavior takes a longer tie to achieve. 7.2 Potential unique and meaningful benefits that will influence and sustain targeted behavior. Benefits to outweigh costs in the long run Wastes could be turned to savings and profit to business Improve image of the UK hospitality sector 7.3 Competing behaviors /forces/choices F. Schneider (2008), in his paper about urban issues, said that wasting food is as insistent behavior. By this he means food wastages occurs at al stages of the life food cycle. It starts from harvesting, processing and production thru trade until it finally reach consumption. Food products pass the seasonal food process, storage surplus, mislabeling and over-production. Other choices to avoid wastes is to donate them to hungry people in the world, which could also be an option. 8.0 Positioning statement Our goal is to reduce food wastes coming from the UK Hospitality sector thru the implementation of a campaign using social marketing. It is expected that considerable cost savings will be realized by the plan, ensure sustainability of resources, and protect degradation of environment. Social marketing is defined as“ the use of marketing principles to improve the welfare of people and the physical, social and economic environment in which they live.” (USCF 2014.) Social marketing is a long-term approach that is planned to change human behavior. Social marketing evolved in 1970s when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltan, both marketing gurus realized they could sell ideas, l, ideas, attitudes and behaviors using same marketing techniques of selling products to consumers. But the differing principle is that social marketing tends to benefit the society and not the marketer(Weinreich, Nedra Kline, 2006) 9.0 Marketing Mix Strategies In a way, social marketing is related to the 4 Ps of marketing mix, wherein P is the product that one is selling. Another P stands for cost, 3rd P is Place and fourth P is Promotion. In social marketing, the Product is the behavior shift or change in attitude(USCF). Product: benefits from performing behaviors and features of goods and services offered to assist adoption The first P (PRODUCT) in our case, is the behavior change manifested by campaign designed to convince restaurant owners and households to avoid food wastages. Core product: Benefits to be derived by restaurant owners are significant cost savings that will redound to profitability of business. Features of promotion: Take advantage of incentive awards to be given by government for creative use of food wastages. Recognition Awards and incentives to restaurants for achieving the least food wastes for the year. Getting a ruling from the government of product size labeling Second P is the cost. I concur with UCSF that it would be difficult to figure out the cost of changing behavior. For example the UK’S campaign to dealing waste as a crime puts the goal of social marketing to reframe the consumer behavior so that they may soon realize the benefits of change outweighs the benefit of costs. Costs. With the change of proportions, pricing goes along with item and a reduction in cost follows. That is a savings for both customers and restaurants. When dealing with costs in social marketing, our plan is to include environmental costs so that consumers realize that restaurants value the degradation of resources. In effect, restaurants are educating consumer on costs and benefits of wastes. There will be uniform pricing so that competition on this level will not be keen. This will require cooperation of all restaurants and a government policy will be required for this action. Price are costs that will be associated with adopting the behavior and price-related tactics to reduce the costs Monetary incentives. As our organization is non-profit, we cannot appropriate funds for monetary incentives. As part of our plan, we will seek assistance from UK government to provide monetary incentives for compliance, since in the long run, benefits will redound to the economy. A budgetary appropriation for this is needed. Non monetary incentives. The assistance of the government is needed again, because we will propose an allowable food waste for restaurants . Violation will be subjected to fines. This will require a thorough study though. Third P is Place. This is where the population can be reached. In social marketing, UCSF says Place represents efforts to make behavior change as easy as possible. For instance, our plan to label serving portions restaurants to customers to avoid food wastes is in line with Place. We also plan to install separate bins for disposables and recyclables. This would require training of service crew with proper disposal Promotion is the 4Th P. Fourth P is Promotion. It is the means used to inform the public about change messages. Often times, companies use advertising to inform the public of this goal. Our promotion campaign may include messages about the recommended behavior change in to the community. Campaigns and reminders how to balance and manage their eating habits will be one of them. On this, we will avail of the presence of the social media network, informing of the public on the changes of servings in restaurants, the need to reduce food wastes, etc. In all of these, we will be needing another P that is, Policy coming from the government to institutionalize the required changes The last P is Policy that is not included in the marketing mix. . Policy comes from government who oversees economic activities of the People . 10.0 Plan for monitoring and evaluation 10.1 Purpose for monitoring result . We have set compliance by 20% of all restaurants in UK by 2015. By creating a database, and submission of quarterly reports, we will be able to establish percentage of waste reduction. 10.2.What will be measured Admittedly, this will be a difficult feat, but we intend to measure monthly savings in cost of reduced food portion, monthly purchases to establish a trend of reduction, if any. This will require services of trained statistician. Measures will be taken at the start of campaign to set a term of reference and will be measured every 6 mos. until the two years experiment period ends. 11.0 Budget Budget for this project which is assumed at £100,000 will come from the Government appropriation….. 50% NGO partnership……………. 25% Donations from private companies 25% Program budget 12.00 Plan for Implementation Details for plan for implementation 1. A partnership with a non-government organization involved in environmental crusade is being worked out. 2. Lobbying for government appropriations by the working group to start as soon as proposal is approved 3. Mapping out of schedules for restaurants and pub houses to be included in the implementation. 4. Tasking for work assignments. 5. Campaign starts. REFERENCES CITED CIA World Factbook. 2014. United Kingdom. People and Society. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ FEDREST (Federation of Specialist Restaurants).”Eating Out Statistics for UK”. http://www.fedrest.com/eatingoutstatistics.html Gov.uk.2014. Reducing and Managing Waste Policy . [on line] Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-and-managing-waste. Accessed [01 July 214] Helmich, Nanci, 2006. Survey: Restaurants dishing out extra-large portions. USA Today. Health and Behavior [on line]. Available at .usatoday.com/news/health/2006-10-21-portions-restaurants_x.htm Accessed [03 July 2014 LRS Consultancy. 2013. £7 billion to be invested in the waste and management sector. [online] Availale at http: www.LRS Consutancy.com/documents/LRSCatalyst_Waste Resource_Management_MandA_Report_2013 pdf. [Accessed 01 July 2014] Smithers, Rebecca. Food Waste Report Shows UK families throw away 24 meals a month. [online] Available at theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/07/uk-households-food-waste [Accessed 01 July 2014] Schneider, I. 2008. Wasting Food – An Insistent Behavior. Urban Issues and solutions. Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada pdf.. [on line]Available from http://www.ifr.ac.uk/waste/Reports/Wasting%20Food%20-%20An%20Insistent.pdf[Accessed 03 July 2013 Stuart, Tristan.2009 Food Waste Facts. Waste 2009. [online] Available from http://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/FoodWasteFacts.html[Accessed 01 July 2014] UCSF.2014. What is Social Marketing [online] University of California, San Francisco [online] Available from http://www.stdhivtraining.org/YSMT_socmarketing.html [Accessed 02 July 2014] WRAP. “The Food we waste”. Food Waste Report v2. [on line] Available from .[Accessed 02 July 2014] Weinreich, Nedra Kline, 2010. What is Social Marketing?, Weinreich Communications. [online] Available from Read More