Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
N.A. Zulkiply & C.T. Chik
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: Food waste is one of the issues that become a global concern nowadays. In health insti-
tutions, the most significant food waste concern is on the plate issue, where the plate waste in hospitals
is proven to contribute up to 50 percent of total waste stream. High level of plate waste will become an
indicator to the level of malnutrition among patients and at the same time will affect financial problem
to the management. Therefore, this study will be carried out by taking into consideration of qualitative
and quantitative approach through visual estimation observation and semi-structured questionnaire. The
future findings will be able to assess plate waste generated in public hospital foodservice in Selangor, and
to find out the reasons for the matter as well.
Keywords
:
Waste, food waste, plate waste, food preference, public hospital
1 INTRODUCTION
in a ward came from food waste. As studied by
Zakiah et al. (2005), plate waste is a type of waste
commonly reported in Malaysian hospitals and
about 17 percent to 67 percent were contributed
as plate waste. It was estimated that plate waste in
hospital can add up to 30 percent from food costs
(Zakiah et al., 2005).
Abdul Hamid, Ahmad, Ibrahim, and Nik
Abdul Rahman (2012) stated in their study, about
7.34 million tons of municipal solid waste was gen-
erated and had been estimated to increase to 10.9
million tons in year 2020. From the huge amount,
60 percent are from municipal solid waste in a form
of food waste. It contributed about 4.40 million
tons and projected to increase to 6.54 million tons
in 2020 (Abdul Hamid et al., 2012).
Therefore, this research was developed to assess
the plate waste generated and investigate the causes
that contribute to plate waste in foodservice hospi-
tal especially in the public hospitals.
Waste management, energy and water consump-
tion were the most related issues in food and bev-
erages industry (Lockwood, Alcott & Pantelidis,
2012). Waste can be categorized into four types
which are municipal solid waste, industrial waste,
agriculture waste and hazardous waste (United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), 2011). Munici-
pal solid waste was the most related waste to food
service establishment which commonly known
as trash or garbage (Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), 2012). Food waste was one of the
item included in trash from homes, schools, hospi-
tals and businesses.
Food waste can be defined as any edible foods
or leftover from some process, cooked or uncooked
food (EPA, 2012). According to Gooch, Felfel, and
Marenick (2010), 8 percent from food waste gener-
ated in Canada came from foodservice institution
which include hotels, restaurants and institution
food outlets such as hospitals. Hospitals were one
of foodservice institution that generates several
types of waste such as food waste and clinical
waste.
Food waste was one of the global issues. This
issue is not alien in a hospital setting as well. One
of the important food waste generated in hospi-
tal were plate waste. Plate waste can be defined as
proportion of edible portion of food that was dis-
carded by people due to several reasons (Williams
& Walton, 2011; Zakiah, Saimy & Maimunah,
2005). Williams and Walton (2011), stated in their
study that 50 percent of the total waste generated
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Public hospital in Malaysia
Malaysia is a country that has mixed health care
system which is public and private sector (Country
Report, 2006). Private sector was mostly well-built
hospital building in the town areas. Meanwhile, for
public health care sector, the Ministry of Health
(MOH) become the main health care provider
through its broad network of primary care clinics
and hospitals ranging from small district hospital
without specialist to large hospitals at state capitals
providing specialists and subspecialty services.
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