A study of food waste in St. Francis Hospital

ABSTRACT

This overall study is about one hospital food system that supports meals for patients, retail customers, special events, and school catering. The estimated food prepared is 90% for patients and retail. The goal is to quantify food purchase, consumption, and waste, as well as energy use in this food system. The input to the overall food system was estimated as a total of about 1200 food item codes per year (Sysco codes) which weigh about 1,200,000 lbs. Waste in the kitchen where food preparation and patient meals are handled consists of solids (peels, seeds, etc.) or liquids (pickle juice, canned fruit liquid, etc.), and fully prepared food kept warm but for which no patient requests are made and so are declared as leftover waste. The study addressed the food waste per tray and per patient and the retail waste (unused leftovers), which averages 48,180 lbs/year. So, the actual hospital food waste is about three-fold higher than the patient tray waste, which is often the only studied aspect of the hospital food system. Thus this study provides a new perspective on hospital food waste as it measures food waste and energy use in the kitchen, patient, and retail areas for improvements.

KEYWORDS:

• Hospitals
• food waste
• plate waste
• food system energy
• life cycle analysis of hospital food system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mr. Fadhel has a PhD in Industrial Engineering in Wichita State University. He got his MSc in Industrial Engineering at St. Mary's University. He is currently working on his research for his dissertation which titled in Life Cycle and Energy Analysis of Products and Hospital Systems.

Dr. Twomey is the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Research, and Faculty Development for the College of Engineering and a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Wichita State University. She served 3 years at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a program officer.

Dr. Overcash has developed a national research program in life cycle inventory and sustainability. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Chemical Engineering. He has served as the Sam Bloomfield Chair in Sustainable Engineered Systems at Wichita State University.

Mr. Anas Sadkhi has a bachelor and master degree in electrical engineering from Wichita State University and an MBA from Salisbury University. He is a professional engineer in Kansas. He works for Medxcel Facilities Management an Ascension Health organization, responsible for energy project development and implementation for all Ascension Health hospitals.