دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی نوآوری های مدیریت زباله های مواد غذایی در صنعت خدمات غذا - الزویر 2018

abstract

There is growing evidence that a significant share of global food is thrown away, with concomitant detrimental repercussions for sustainability. Reducing food waste is a key sustainability challenge for the food service industry. Despite the significance of this issue to the global foodservice industry, the link between innovation practices and food waste management has received limited attention in the academic literature. This paper uses innovation management and social constructionism to investigate interrelationships of food service provisions and innovations in waste management. It is based on the evaluation of food waste solutions and innovations that combine strategic dimensions of waste management with practice-driven initiatives, including incremental (processes and technologies) and radical innovations. The paper presents a range of waste management initiatives, showing that their implementation in the foodservice sector varies depending on management’s beliefs, knowledge, goals and actions. The concepts discussed here could help practitioners to become more aware of the factors that drive the adoption of food waste innovations.

6. Conclusions

The objective of this article was to review approaches to waste management in the foodservice industry with the aim to identify innovations and to discuss their implications for waste management. A key finding is that many companies are not actively innovating in the waste domain. They are however increasingly aware of the economic and social importance of waste management. Organizations taking waste management seriously might gain significant efficiency by partnering with third-party companies or by borrowing solutions from other industries that can be adapted to food service establishments relatively easily. On the downside, the foodservice industry is not leading the way when it comes to innovation. As the study shows, there are only a few low- or zero-waste restaurants, a few chefs who are creating meals with food scraps. This paper consequently provides managers with a set of tools (i.e., practices from several companies committed to adopting waste initiatives) to deliver a reflection-in-practice approach to waste issues pertaining to food service firms.

This lack of clear, common definitions and consistency across studies might be one of the reasons for which the foodservice sector lags behind other industries when it comes to food waste management. It also calls for tools and concepts to design the innovative practices supporting effective waste management systems. Future research may address such tools and concepts, as well as different types of innovations and sources of co-operation between collaborative firms and traditional food service organizations.