A Qualitative, Ethnographic Study Conducted By Goonan Et

A qualitative, ethnographic study conducted by Goonan et al. (2013) examined hospital waste prior to patient consumption. The purpose of this study was to understand reasons for hospital food waste before consumption and offer recommendations on waste minimization within foodservice. The subjects of the study included three hospital foodservice located in New Zealand. All three sites used a cook-fresh production system and conventional tray line service. The researcher first analyzed existing documents. These documents included company policies and plans, production and service materials, waste records, and quality assurance tools and records (Goonan, Mirosa, Spence, 2014). Food waste generation practices were observed under natural†¦show more content†¦The third hospital’s waste could not be quantified. Not all food waste is accounted for due to varying levels of waste system compliance amongst the kitchen staff. Consistency in waste measuring policies and procedures must be improved globally. All points of foodservice produced waste, but most was due to overproduction. It was believed that overproduction was largely due to inaccurate forecasting. The hospital setting is incredibly variable when it comes to total occupied beds and fluctuating diets; this causes forecasting to be a major struggle for the foodservice managers; the forecasting system must be enhanced in order to minimize waste. Eight focus group participants and all six managers attributed most of the food waste to improper portion control, but the researcher found that lack of portion control contributed minimally to the total food waste generated. Food waste during storage, preparation and production was nominal. Perceptions of food waste varied among the foodservice staff, while the managers focused more on the financial consequences of food waste, the kitchen staff focused more on the social consequences. Food safety and quality control were the main focuses during waste train ing at each site; there is a need to begin incorporating social and ecological values. More research should be conducted on how to improve forecasting and staff training in order to reduce waste. A strong attribute of