Background
Discuss about the Proposal On The Management Of Food Wastes Within The Food Industry Of Melbourne.
The research proposal will discuss about the management of food wastes within the Melbourne food industry considering the fact about how the food wastes are prevented. The food wastes are generated by the consumption of food by people at restaurants, hotels, etc. From various surveys, it is found that the Melbourne food industry produces the maximum amount of food wastes and almost 200kg of food for a single person is wasted every year. Not only the hotel and restaurant authorities are responsible, but also the customers who waste a lot of food (Beske, Land and Seuring 2014).
The research background illustrates the significance of managing food wastes within the Melbourne food industry. The companies within the food industry focus on serving the customers and meeting their expectations, so they alone cannot be held responsible for the food wastes generated. The food wastes that are generated every day have been immense, because the guests from the morning until night consume the foods (Damron 2013). The restaurants and hotels within the food industry are the major sources of these kinds of food wastes that are generated through consumption by the customers and the leftovers that are being wasted. The management of food wastes is important for reducing the chances of pollution and ensures maintaining a clean and healthy environment. The background of research focuses on the importance of managing the food wastes properly within the Melbourne food industry for reducing the pollution level and preventing emergence of bad smell and dirt all over the place. The food wastes are needed to be disposed properly so that people do not feel uncomfortable with the smell and lesser negative impact is created on the environment (Aung and Chang 2014).
The significance of the research represents the benefits that can be obtained by managing the food wastes within the food industry of Melbourne, Australia. The consumption of foods is based on the quality and price of food items offered by the restaurants and hotels. The food wastes are generated when there are leftovers, maybe because of the lack of interest among the older guests to consume food items and for the children who may prefer only one kind of dish and the other food items shall get waste (Girotto, Alibardi and Cossu 2015). The significance of the study is that it will help in gaining in-depth knowledge about the ways of managing wastes in Australia. This include supporting the innovation and effectiveness in the agricultural sector, use of packaging in a sustainable manner, development of partnerships, creating awareness through promotion of education related to the management of food wastes, creating value from the wastes and conducting standardization procedures to monitor the wastes and reducing its negative effects (Mirabella, Castellani and Sala 2014). The business organizations within the Melbourne food industry will be able to follow certain mitigation measures and reduce the risks associated with the generation of food wastes. There are more than 3.1 million tons of edible food along with food wastes that are estimated to cost Australian economy by more than $20 billion every year (Hudson 2015). The research significance will shed limelight on the complexities that may arise while managing the food wastes and create scopes for preventing the generation of food wastes and how it can be used for other purposes.
Significance
The scope for conducting the research on the management of food wastes within the Melbourne food industry is immense. The research scope highlights the importance of food wastes’ management and how it can reduce the pollution level, bad environmental conditions and ensure maintaining an ecological balance in nature at Melbourne. The research proposal will create additional scopes for the food industry in Melbourne to use the food wastes for other purposes like for the production of fertilizers and recycling those (Molden 2013). The waste control rules and regulations by the Government can allow the food companies to become more aware and prevent wastage of food to the utmost level possible, maybe for feeding the poor with leftovers or even using the food wastes for other purposes (Lin et al. 2013). The hospitality and food industries have generated the most amounts of wastes and thus the research proposal can focus on the issues and reduce the food wastes generation by the end of 2020.
The problem statement presents about the various issues like pollution, bad smell and negative environmental impact caused due to the food wastes generated from the food industry in Melbourne. The problems are created when excessive foods are ordered at the hotels and restaurants and its results in a lot of wastage because the guests are unable to consume the food entirely. The different kinds of food wastes can be raw meat, fish and even cooked vegetables along with the catering wastes and other by-products’ wastes (Betz et al. 2015).
Objectives
- To identify the major sources to food wastes within the food industry of Melbourne, Australia
- To evaluate the impact created by managing the food wastes generated within the Melbourne food industry
- To make assessment of various approaches that are followed to understand the effects of food wastes on the environment
- To recommend necessary measures for managing the food wastes generated by the food industry and maintaining a healthy environment at Melbourne
Based on the explanation provided by the Australian Department of Food, Environment and Energy, a huge amount of wastes was generated every year, which not only created negative environmental impact but also created ineffectiveness in the food sector of Melbourne, Australia. Food wastes have caused huge impact on the climactic conditions, water, land and biodiversity. Wastage of food in large numbers not only caused loss in economy, but also created environmental issues, as stated by the Food and Agriculture department in Australia (Beretta et al. 2013). The food wastes generated from the food industries all over Melbourne ended up in landfills and created methane gas, which caused bad smell and crated discomfort for the people living nearby as well as harmed the ecological balance in nature. The major causes of food wastes were excessive food ordered and unable to consume all of that. The reduction of food in various stages of the food supply chain was considered as wastage of food (Barthel and Isendahl 2013). According to surveys, the most amounts of food wastes included bread, milk, meat, potatoes, cheese, etc. It was important to manage the food wastes properly for maintaining a healthy environment and at the same time, create lesser impact on the climatic conditions (Van Dyk et al. 2013).
Scope
Many key players are associated with the management of food wastes within the Melbourne food industry including the Government of Australia, state and territory governments, academic institutions, food manufacturing and processing industries and primary producers. The food that does not get delivered to the consumer can be due to the weather conditions, pest and diseases associated with its consumption. There were many business organizations within the food industry that identified these scopes and opportunities to utilize the produced foods that were not needed (Pham et al. 2015). One example could be the bent carrots that were packaged as carrot sticks so that it could be sold in the supermarkets. Many grocery retailers assessed the supply chains and enhanced the food life through proper ordering systems for ensuring that the food delivered could meet the demands in the market. The households must consider the food that they bought and even store those properly so that the customers could buy what they actually needed and consume those within the usable dates (Papargyropoulou et al. 2014). If the foods were not used before the usable dates, then the condition of food might deteriorate and then get wasted as well. According to Verghese et al. (2013), with the support by Australian Government and according to the Australian standards, the packaging techniques were managed perfectly to improve the life of food during storage at the shelves (Verghese et al. 2013). It could be a major problem as well because the food waste might remain unsustainable for composting in case it had not been properly disposed. The Government of Australia worked in partnership with the Australian Packaging Covenant for ensuring that the packaging designs were sustainable and recycling of food wastes was possible too. The charitable organizations were not left behind as well, which further helped in accomplishing the food waste reduction goals and objectives and even allowed the charities to enhance the level of security for reducing the generation of food wastes to a utmost level possible (Verghese et al. 2013). The Governmental bodies made sure to invest for the purpose of public education, which created awareness among the people to manage home composting, furthermore ensured that the food wastes could be used as agricultural fertilizers.
Within the Melbourne food industry, various programs were developed to divert the food wastes from the commercial food sector. The food wastes were turned from the commercial kitchen within the hotels into fertilizers or compost. The companies did not have to invest in landfills; rather they focused on developing food waste management practices and developed food waste treatment technology to manage the organic wastes. Large scale bio-digester plant was introduced at Melbourne to use the food wastes as a source of electricity and composts for agricultural purposes. Bio-digestion and composting were other alternative options available for the food industry in Melbourne to manage the food wastes properly (Lawrence, Richards and Lyons 2013). The foods wastes were also subjected to creation of value by commercializing the new bio-products while the Australian Government made sure to maintain the standards and reduce the costs properly.
Problem statement and objectives
According to Verghese et al. (2013), 4.2 million tons of food wastes were put into landfills every year among which 2.7 million and 1.5 million were from the households and commercial sector. The packaging techniques minimized the generation of food wastes qnd protected the food while moving through the supply chain to its consumers. There had been options to recover the surplus amount of food through alternative waste management technologies that produced compost and energy and even were fed to the animals in zoos and farmyards. For example, Foodbank in Australia managed to conduct the food rescue operations and redistributed shelf stable frozen foods (Verghese et al. 2013). The recycling is done at very less numbers, because of which, it became essential for the companies within the food industry to sell the surplus food to the food processing units, farmers and even supply charities. Based on the responses of Verghese et al. (2013), sources of food wastes were rejection of foods due to lack of quality control, failures of equipments and machineries, etc. To maintain sustainability, the companies should aim for management f food wastes by combining the process improvements and recover the edible food for consumption through various other channels (Verghese et al. 2013).
According to Lawrence, Richards and Lyons (2013), neoliberal settings were proposed at Melbourne, Australia to encourage the growth and development of productivist farming and ensured food security to minimize the food wastes generated. The farmers produced most of the foods that had been consumed in the domestic areas and the remaining excessive amount of food were fed to 40 million people abroad. Based on the statements made by Lawrence, Richards and Lyons (2013), the neoliberal settings were beneficial for managing the trade relations and even increased the volumes of food imported, which reduced the scarcity of food in certain areas as well (Lawrence, Richards and Lyons 2013).
Conclusion
The research proposal highlighted the importance of managing food wastes properly within the food sector of Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the research was to focus on how the management of food wastes had been possible and the outcomes derived. The research was conducted to identify the scope, research problem along with the objectives that were needed to be achieved. The literature review provided a brief explanation about the sources of food wastes and the most relevant food waste management strategies required to recover food and prevent wastage at any cost possible.
References
Aung, M.M. and Chang, Y.S., 2014. Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives. Food control, 39, pp.172-184.
Barthel, S. and Isendahl, C., 2013. Urban gardens, agriculture, and water management: Sources of resilience for long-term food security in cities. Ecological Economics, 86, pp.224-234.
Beretta, C., Stoessel, F., Baier, U. and Hellweg, S., 2013. Quantifying food losses and the potential for reduction in Switzerland. Waste management, 33(3), pp.764-773.
Beske, P., Land, A. and Seuring, S., 2014. Sustainable supply chain management practices and dynamic capabilities in the food industry: A critical analysis of the literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 152, pp.131-143.
Betz, A., Buchli, J., Göbel, C. and Müller, C., 2015. Food waste in the Swiss food service industry–Magnitude and potential for reduction. Waste Management, 35, pp.218-226.
Damron, W.S., 2013. Introduction to animal science: global, biological, social, and industry perspectives.
Girotto, F., Alibardi, L. and Cossu, R., 2015. Food waste generation and industrial uses: a review. Waste management, 45, pp.32-41.
Hudson, N., 2015. Soil conservation: fully revised and updated(No. Ed. 3). New India Publishing Agency.
Lawrence, G., Richards, C. and Lyons, K., 2013. Food security in Australia in an era of neoliberalism, productivism and climate change. Journal of Rural Studies, 29, pp.30-39.
Lin, C.S.K., Pfaltzgraff, L.A., Herrero-Davila, L., Mubofu, E.B., Abderrahim, S., Clark, J.H., Koutinas, A.A., Kopsahelis, N., Stamatelatou, K., Dickson, F. and Thankappan, S., 2013. Food waste as a valuable resource for the production of chemicals, materials and fuels. Current situation and global perspective. Energy & Environmental Science, 6(2), pp.426-464.
Mirabella, N., Castellani, V. and Sala, S., 2014. Current options for the valorization of food manufacturing waste: a review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, pp.28-41.
Molden, D., 2013. Water for food water for life: a comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. Routledge.
Papargyropoulou, E., Lozano, R., Steinberger, J.K., Wright, N. and bin Ujang, Z., 2014. The food waste hierarchy as a framework for the management of food surplus and food waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 76, pp.106-115.
Pham, T.P.T., Kaushik, R., Parshetti, G.K., Mahmood, R. and Balasubramanian, R., 2015. Food waste-to-energy conversion technologies: current status and future directions. Waste Management, 38, pp.399-408.
Van Dyk, J.S., Gama, R., Morrison, D., Swart, S. and Pletschke, B.I., 2013. Food processing waste: Problems, current management and prospects for utilisation of the lignocellulose component through enzyme synergistic degradation. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 26, pp.521-531.
Verghese, K., Lewis, H., Lockrey, S. and Williams, H., 2013. The role of packaging in minimising food waste in the supply chain of the future. RMIT University: Melbourne, Australia.
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