Abstract:
Food waste has always been an issue in kitchens of all sizes. It is, however, seen a lot
more in commercial kitchens where there are high volumes of food waste generated.
The generation of food waste in the kitchen causes a significant financial loss for the
educational institutions and also contributes to natural resource depletion, Green
House Gas (GHG) emissions during final disposal in landfills. The study aimed at
assessing food waste management in the kitchens of Senior High Schools (SHS) in
the Bolgatanga Municipality. The research design adopted for the study was survey.
The population of the study included 64 kitchen staff identified at the four (4)
boarding senior high schools in the Bolgatanga Municipality. Fifty-six kitchen staff
were sampled using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used for
collecting the necessary information. The data gathered were processed using the
statistical software packages, SPSS version 23.0. The finding indicated that leftovers
foods, discarded food items, and purchasing ingredients more than needed are the type
of waste generated. The finding showed that the kitchens does not have control over
purchasing of food items, and have poor practice towards proper preparation of food
to avoid waste generation. The study found that the kitchens had poor practices
towards management of food wasted generated. The result showed that developing a
food waste management policy ensures better planning of purchases by 78%, and
better knowledge on how to use leftovers by 69.3%. The study concluded that proper
strategies can reduce food waste generations towards sustainable food waste
management. It was recommended that the school authorities should establish internal
audit team and audit food waste generation by measuring the present food waste
levels and identify the key sources of food waste generation.
Description:
A Dissertation in the Department of HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM EDUCATION,
Faculty of VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, submitted to the School of Graduate
Studies, University of Education, Winneba, and in partial fulfillment of requirement
for the award of the Master of Technology (Catering and Hospitality) degree.
APRIL, 2021