JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING

2018, VOL. 24, NO. 5, 591–610

https://doi.org/10.1080/10454446.2018.1472695

Waste Not, Want Not: A Case Study on Food Waste in

Restaurants of Lahore, Pakistan
Musa Aamira, Huzaifa Ahmada*, Qasim Javaida, and Syed M. Hasanb
a
Rizq, Lahore, Pakistan; bDepartment of Economics, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore,
Pakistan

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Recently, there is growing focus on quantifying food waste pro- Food waste; restaurants;
blem and analyzing its causes due to an imminent challenge: feed survey; Pakistan
nine billion people by 2050. Among developing countries, we
focus on Pakistan which has the sixth largest population in the
world and faces serious issues of food insecurity and malnourish-
ment. Astoundingly, despite the gravity of the situation the avail-
able research on the issue is almost non-existent. Here, in this
first-of-its-kind study for Pakistan we attempt to measure the
quantum of food wastage and study its underlying reasons across
restaurants in the country’s second largest urban center, Lahore,
which is also popularly designated as “the culinary capital of
Pakistan”. Segmenting restaurants according to the niche mar-
kets they target—as high-end, medium-end, and low-end—and
using actual measures of daily wastage, we find overproduction
and liability concerns as the prime reasons of excess food pre-
paration and its improper disposal.

Introduction
The food wasted across all developing countries is valued at US$310 billion. This
is staggering given that food waste creates serious constraints on essential factors
of production such as energy and capital along with continuing stress on vital
natural resources like land and water. The FAO (2011) identifies a huge differ-
ence of one to ten in per capita waste between the developing and developed
world, respectively. However, as the developing block contributes to more than
40% of the global population, the difference in absolute waste is reduced to just
one to two. It is therefore shocking to observe that the trend of food waste
extends to societies where millions still suffer from hunger and malnutrition.
A more recent report from FAO (2015) estimates that approximately 800
million people around the world do not have enough food to eat, and that
hunger and malnutrition pose the greatest risk to human health. Black et al.
(2013) estimate that under-nutrition in the aggregate—including fetal growth

CONTACT Syed M. Hasan, Assistant Professor [email protected] Department of Economics, Lahore

University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wfpm.
*Co-founder Rizq: A food donation organization.
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
592 M. AAMIR ET AL.

restriction, stunting, wasting, and deficiencies of vitamin A and zinc along

with suboptimum breastfeeding—is a cause of 3.1 million child deaths
annually. To partially explain this, contrast this with the fact that, around
1.3 million tons or 32% of what is produced for human consumption gets
wasted (FAO, 2011).
The situation in Pakistan is similar: 60% of the population is food insecure,
while 44% of children under 5 years are stunted (The Agha Khan University,
2011). According to media reports citing authorities at the Pakistan
Environmental Protection Agency, around 40% of the cooked food gets
wasted (Dawn, 2016). For a nation marred with food insecurity and malnu-
trition, such inefficiencies need immediate attention and action.
The developed world is slowly beginning to grasp the sheer magnitude of
this global food waste (Stuart, 2009). Organizations such as Waste and
Resources Action Programme in the United Kingdom and Rethink Food
Waste through Economics and Data (ReFED) in the USA specialize in
quantifying losses due to food waste and identifying strategies to combat
them. Even recently, the US administration declared 2015 as the year against
food waste, hinting that the food waste issue was finally being considered
seriously. However, despite the gravity of the situation in Pakistan, the issue
of food waste is not yet given due consideration. This is evident by the fact
that no concrete survey or study has so far been conducted on the federal or
provincial level to quantify the amount of food wasted, both in households
and restaurants and to develop any policy recommendations thereon.
Interestingly, in contrast to this official inaction, Pakistani civil society has
adopted a proactive approach. Recently several non-profits and volunteer organi-
zations have sprouted up to create awareness and combat this issue. One such
pioneering effort is “Rizq-Mitta De Bhook (Sustenance-Eliminate Hunger)”, a
social enterprise that aims to provide smart channelization of excess food
resources from places of surplus to places of need. The research in this article is
conducted with the help of Rizq and is thus, among other things, a way of creating
awareness about the issue and uncovering new intricacies of Pakistani food waste.
According to FAO (2011), the main causes of food losses and waste in low-
income countries are mainly connected to financial, managerial, and technical
limitations in harvesting techniques, storage and cooling facilities in difficult
climatic conditions, infrastructure, packaging, and marketing systems. We
present first-of-its-kind survey for Pakistan that aims to quantify the amount
of food waste in the restaurant sector and explore the underlying reasons for it.
The remainder of the article is structured as follows: the second section will
review key literature. The third section is a summary of what is Rizq, what are
its aims and its achievements hitherto. The fourth section details the metho-
dology employed to conduct the survey, followed by our results and analysis in
the fifth section. Finally, we provide a brief set of policy recommendations in
sixth section and conclude the discussion.
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 593

Literature review
The available literature on food waste and its reasons is scarce as the issue has
only recently caught attention in academic and policy circles.
Papargyropoulou, Lozano, Steinberger, Wright, and Bin Ujang (2014) exam-
ine the factors that give rise to food waste throughout the food supply chain
and propose a framework to identify and prioritize the most appropriate
options for prevention and management of food waste. The food waste
hierarchy posits that prevention, through minimization of food surplus and
avoidable food waste, is the most attractive option. The second-best option
involves the distribution of food surplus to groups affected by food poverty,
followed by the less preferred option of converting food waste to animal feed.
In a similar vein, ReFED (2016) makes the first-of-its-kind, collaborative
effort between food businesses, governments, farmers, consumers, and busi-
ness investors to not only quantify the food loss that arises from various
sectors in the USA but also to explore business and entrepreneurship oppor-
tunities to reduce food waste. They categorized food waste solutions into
three broad based groups: (i) food waste prevention strategies; (ii) food waste
channelization and recovery; and (iii) food waste recycling. While developing
the questionnaire for this study, we have largely followed a similar structure
of questions. ReFED (2016) reported that effective demand forecasting and
cold chain management could be some of the best ways to prevent food
waste. Similarly, using donation matching software, promoting education of
donation liability laws, and providing tax incentives could potentially stream-
line channelization of excess food resources.
In another study, Aschemann-Witzel, De Hooge, Amani, Bech-Larsen, and
Oostindjer (2015) point out that lack of knowledge about the correct inter-
pretation of ‘best before’ dates on food labels leads to waste by people who
assume that food is not fit for consumption after the said date. Cox and
Downing (2007) found buying too much and poor storage management were
the prime reasons for increased food waste in England. Moreover, they also
point out a behavioral angle where a large proportion of consumers (about
49%) indicate their sensitivity to the issue, yet fail to link food waste and
environmental degradation and tend to waste a lot of food.
With this overview of the food waste issue, we now focus on the food
service industry, which contributes substantially to food losses across the
food value chain. Beretta, Stoessel, Baier, and Hellweg (2013) in their study of
food values losses in Switzerland identify the food service industry as the
third largest source of food waste based on food input at each stage of the
value-added chain. The total losses are estimated as 18% of food inputs, with
avoidable losses at 13.5%, showing the gains to be made if the industry can be
made more efficient. Youngs, Nobis, and Town (1983) conducted their
investigation of food waste from UK hotels and restaurants in two stages.
594 M. AAMIR ET AL.

The first stage involved direct observational techniques while the second
involved indirect techniques so that the work of the restaurant was not
disrupted. The results from their study indicate that high waste values
observed in the hotels can be attributed to overproduction of food, tradi-
tional catering methods using a high proportion of unprocessed foods, and
offering extensive menus to customers. The methods, however, may lead to
biased results as direct observational techniques may make the chefs aware of
the fact that they are being recorded. We feel that it is difficult to replicate
this approach in Pakistan, as restaurants are not willing to grant researchers
frequent access to their kitchens.
Surveys and structured interviews as employed by Parry, James, and
LeRoux (2015) and Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA, 2016) were
more favorable for the Pakistani context. Both these reports conducted a
primary survey among the restaurants, which was followed by structural
interviews and focus groups of select restaurant owners and chefs. They
found consumer waste to be one of the prime reasons of food waste in a
restaurant. This study will follow the research pattern of these two in a bid to
better understand the dynamics of food waste in restaurants of Lahore.

What is Rizq?
Pakistan has been ranked as a country with a “serious” hunger concern where
22% of its population is undernourished according to the 2016 Global
Hunger Index report (Von Grebmer et al., 2016). The document states that
at the current rate of decline, more than 45 countries—including India,
Pakistan, Haiti, Yemen, and Afghanistan—will have “moderate” to “alarm-
ing” hunger scores in the year 2030. Placed 107 in a ranking of 118 devel-
oping countries, Pakistan performed worse than most of its South Asian
neighbors in eliminating hunger. Research has shown that more is being
produced in the country than what is needed to wipe out extreme hunger, yet
tragically hunger seems to be only growing (Dawn, 2016). Whereas on one
hand the state’s indifference on the issue of food waste and donations is
unfortunate, it is heartening to note that various civil society organizations
have taken lead and are meaningfully contributing to the solutions.
Rizq is a Lahore based social enterprise focused on smart channelization of
societal resources to alleviate food insecurity and malnourishment. Rizq has
developed a unique model for providing a “marketplace” for food donor and
food insecure segments of society. Rizq works with various community
centers for a more targeted intervention. With the help of community
centers, it identifies and verifies food insecure households and provides
them with low-cost or free food assistance.
Rizq also uses technology to connect food donors to its food insecure
target audience, enabling them to observe the impact their donation is
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 595

making on the lives of the people. In order to curb rising malnourishment,

Rizq also began its School Lunch Program, whereby they provide tailor-made
meal plans to children of under privileged schools within target communities
according to their nutritional needs.
Rizq differentiates itself from other food charities as it operates on a self-
sustaining model. The organization charges restaurants and households for
pickup and distribution of food, and also charges a nominal PKR 10 per meal
(10 cents per meal) to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are identified after a
meticulous screening process to ensure that they are really food insecure—
something normal food charities and free kitchens do not do.
The Rizq database indicates that so far, they have collected over 35,000 kg
of excess food, fed at least one meal to 170,000 people, and adopted three
schools as part of its school lunch program. Currently, a core team of three
individuals, with an extended team of five and 300+ volunteers, facilitate
operations across two cities: Lahore (the provincial capital of the most
populous province) and Islamabad (the country’s capital).

Methodology
This section describes the methods and sampling techniques used to calculate
food waste in restaurants around Lahore and gauge the major reasons behind
such food waste. Our research methodology comprises both quantitative and
qualitative methods. The first part of the study entails a survey using a
structured questionnaire of various restaurants around Lahore, which is
then followed by a qualitative interview of a select restaurant managers and
chefs. The human subject approval for the questionnaire was duly sought and
granted by the IRB at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Survey sample and questionnaire design

We limited the scope of our survey to restaurants that were licensed by the
Punjab Food Authority (PFA). The PFA-approved licenses ensure that a
restaurant is following food quality and hygiene standards, and as such
their waste/excess food could be efficiently channelized for donation.
Secondly, our sample was further restricted to buffet and à la carte restau-
rants across Lahore only; ice-cream parlors/café’s and pizza shops were not
included as both of these have either negligible waste or waste that could not
be effectively channelized later. Dairy products left in excess in ice-cream
parlors have a short shelf life, whereas in pizza shops the main leftover is
dough, which can be frozen and utilized later, leading to negligible waste.
Moreover, it is reasonable to expect heterogeneity in the stage and quantity
of food waste generated by a restaurant depending on its food processing
technology, target market, and clientele. Restaurants using efficient production
596 M. AAMIR ET AL.

processes may generate a low proportion of waste at the food preparation

stage. Further, depending upon the income or education level of the restaurant
clientele, waste as food left by consumers on plates (plate waste) may vary. In
order to control for some of this heterogeneity in the analysis, we segregate our
sample into three broad categories: high-end, medium-end, and low-end
restaurants. We use the average price for a full course meal as listed in
Foodpanda’s directory (www.foodpanda.pk) as the indicator that can capture
such heterogeneity in both the consumer and producer sides of the market.
This way the analysis relies on the quality of the final product and its
associated niche market, and is not biased by the size of the business.
At buffet restaurants, the average cost of a full course meal is set as the
buffet price for a single person. For à la carte restaurants, the average meal
for one person was described to include one appetizer, one main-course
entrée, and one dessert. We calculated average appetizer, main-course
entrée, and dessert costs for each restaurant, where the addition of these
three averages gave us average meal cost at a restaurant. Wherever a dish
served more than one person, the price of the dish was divided by the
number of servings to give the cost of serving of a single person. We
categorized restaurants with an average meal cost of PKR 700 (US$7) and
less, exclusive of sales tax, as low-end restaurants. Restaurants with average
meal cost for one person ranging between PKR 700 and 1,200 (US$7–12) as
medium-end restaurants. Finally, restaurants where the average cost of meal
was greater than PKR 1,200 (US$12) were categorized as high end.
We then randomly picked 30 restaurants from each category to be sur-
veyed, so the sample size for this study was 90 restaurants in total. Naturally,
there were many hurdles in conducting the surveys. Many restaurants were
not willing to share information regarding their food waste. This was prob-
ably due to the distrust that has been caused among the restaurant owners
over the recent hygiene compliance checks conducted by the PFA. Moreover,
many restaurants did not want to give away any information regarding their
food waste and what strategies they used to combat it, due to the fear that
such information may reach their competitors. As a consequence, we
received completed surveys from 58 restaurants for a 64.45% completion
rate (24 high-end, 20 medium-end, and 14 low-end).
The questionnaire (see Appendix) is adapted from Quested and Parry (2011)
and FWRA (2016) and contextualized for the case of Pakistan. For the purpose
of the respondent’s understanding, food waste was defined as fit for consump-
tion, excess food that is leftover after day end sales. We made sure that each
questionnaire was completed by the restaurant manager or head chef at the
restaurant, and was completed in the presence of at least one of our team to
avoid any ambiguity in comprehension. Apart from the basic information of the
respondent and restaurants, such as years working at the restaurant and the
seating capacity of the restaurant, the questionnaire delved deep into the reasons
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 597

why food waste is generated in restaurants. The questionnaire also asked about
various strategies employed by the restaurant to reduce waste, with a special
focus on two strategies: food donation and food recycling. The survey also
explored the reasons as to why restaurants would be hesitant to employ the
above two strategies. Finally, the seasonality of food waste was also explored.

Structured interview
Subsequent to the survey, a structured interview was conducted to add to the
results of the questionnaire. The focus was more on the economics behind
the various reasons for food waste or loss and why it is not donated or
recycled. Overproduction, which is one of the leading causes of food waste,
might persist due to the profit motives of the restaurant. Similarly, food
donation might be a problem due to lack of storage or efficient channels to
disperse excess food. A total of six restaurants managers and chefs were
interviewed, two from each category. These restaurants were selected at
random from the sample of those who had participated in our survey.

Results and analysis

This section lists our major findings from both the questionnaire and the
structured interviews.

Amount of food waste

Since the state and electronic media have targeted restaurants over hygiene and
health standards, there was a general tendency among the managers not to
share any information regarding the amount of food waste on their premises.
Despite continuous reassurances, potential issues over maintaining confidenti-
ality of the information was a major hurdle in research and managers were
apprehensive about its likely impact on the public image of the restaurant. As
such several restaurants reported zero food waste on their premises. Overall,
among the 58 restaurants that responded to the survey, 14 refused to give
information on the amount of food wasted or reported zero food waste.
Conventional wisdom makes it hard to believe the figure of zero food waste
at any restaurant, as, after all, in preparation and serving of food there is some
unavoidable food waste. This was corroborated from responses by restaurant
managers and chefs during our structural interviews. Food and beverage
specialists suggest that not only there is some unavoidable food waste during
preparation, there is also avoidable food waste due to overproduction at each
restaurant; thus, the stance of zero-waste at any restaurant strains credibility.
This issue also highlights the significance of having proper definitions of food
waste as without them it is easy to play with interpretations.
598 M. AAMIR ET AL.

Hence, we ignore observations with missing or zero values for the food
waste variable and focus our analysis to only those who responded with some
positive numbers. Figure 1 shows the overall amount of food wasted among
all responding restaurants. The results for the three defined categories of
restaurants are given in Table 1, which shows an average waste quantity of
35.6 kg (78.5 pounds) per day. Overall waste per restaurant is highest for the
high-end restaurant category, followed by the medium-end and low-end
restaurants. We validated around 10% of these figures using Rizq’s internal
data base, which measures the amount of food it receives from each of its
participating restaurants, where high-end restaurants tend to donate more
food to the Rizq Food Bank than medium or low-end restaurants. Also, as the
average seating capacity of restaurants in the three defined categories varied
in a narrow range from 100 to 120, the waste quantity is not likely to be
driven by the size of operations.
Although the trends in the amount of food waste seem fairly accurate, the
magnitude of food waste that occurs still poses a huge question mark. The
chefs and restaurant managers who were interviewed explained that in many
restaurants there was no defined standard operating procedure (SOP) that

Figure 1. Daily food waste quantity.

Table 1. Average Food Waste Quantity by Restaurant Category.

Restaurant category Daily food waste quantity (kg)
High-end (N = 24) 56.5
Medium-end (N = 20) 29.4
Low-end (N = 14) 16.2
Total (n = 58) 35.6
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 599

measured the daily amount of food waste, despite the fact that such informa-
tion could have helped them in forecasting the optimal amount of stock and
inventory. Moreover, respondents from our structural interview indicated
that many managers and chefs would be inclined to under-report the level of
food waste that occurs in their restaurants since this information might make
them look inefficient. Further investigation shows that there is some weight
to this claim: when cross validated with Rizq database over the same period
of time, we found that some of the restaurants that were partners with Rizq’s
donation network under-reported the amount of waste when compared to
the amount they donated to the food bank.
Lastly, when figuring out the weekly variation in food waste, we saw that
across all restaurants, the largest amount of food going to waste was on
weekend nights, with the least being wasted on Mondays. This is in line with
the general trend of eating out on weekends. Moreover, exploring the
seasonality in the trends we find that across all high-end and medium-end
restaurants, the most food is wasted in the October to December period. The
weather during this time of the year is very pleasant, causing restaurant
managers to expect high customer traffic and to overproduce to ensure
adequate supplies for the larger expected crowds.

Reasons for food waste

Across all restaurants, overproduction, plate waste by customers, and food
spoilage were the top three reasons for food waste, whereas expiration and
food losses during preparation and serving were consistently ranked as the
least important reasons for waste.
Comparing across different categories, the majority of the high-end restau-
rants cited overproduction as the most important reason for food waste,
followed by plate waste from consumers and expiration of food and inventory
stock. We saw a similar trend in case of middle end restaurants. Lower-end
restaurants posted a slightly different result where the majority of the restau-
rants cited consumer plate waste as the top reason, followed by overproduction
and expiration. This could mean either one of two things: that target con-
sumers of lower-end restaurants are more wasteful than target consumers of
the other two categories as they assign low value to the relatively cheaper food,
or that the traffic variation among the lower-end restaurants is not that much
to warrant overproduction. Figure 2 shows the percentage of restaurants in
each category reporting their primary and secondary reasons for food waste.
The fact that overproduction is the primary contributor toward food
waste was also corroborated by our findings from the interviews.
Overproduction was built into the system to ensure profits when high
customer traffic was expected. Restaurant managers revealed that at many
restaurants the retail price of a meal is actually twice or even thrice its
600 M. AAMIR ET AL.

100%

90% 19%
28% 30%
80% 43%
51%
70%
69%
% of Restaurants
60%

50% 58%
48%
50%
40% 33%
33%
30%

20% 22%
18% 14% 18%
15%
10% 15%
8% 6% 9% 6%
1% 1% 5%
0%
High End, High End, Medium End, Medium End, Low End, Low End,
Primary Reason Secondary Primary Reason Secondary Primary Reason Secondary
Reason Reason Reason

Other Expiration Plate Waste Overproduction

Figure 2. Reasons for food waste stated by restaurants.

production cost. This means that there is a greater opportunity cost faced
by a restaurant if a customer leaves without being served due to non-
availability of prepared food than the restaurant overproducing the food in
the first place. This mismatch of expected profits between overproducing
the food and not having enough food for the customers is also noted by
Stuart (2009). Similarly, insufficiency or non-availability of demanded food
reflects badly on the restaurant reputation and is thought to hinder sub-
sequent visits by the same customer.
From our interviews, we also found out that many restaurants had pay
back deals in place with many of their suppliers who would replace expired
items in restaurant stock and inventory with new ones every month. This was
especially the case with juices and canned goods and drinks. As such, many
restaurants do not prioritize the use of products which have an early expiry
date because expired products would be replaced by their suppliers.
However, this does not apply to supplies of meat, dairy, and vegetables,
which are purchased on a day-to-day basis. Restaurants have their own
SOP for the disposal of meat and dairy products. Usually such procedures
require the restaurants to dump all such products after 24–36 h. This con-
tributes to a lot of waste, according to our interviewees.

Strategies for food waste prevention and channelization

When asked about the most effective ways to prevent food waste, a majority
of respondents deemed effective demand forecasting to be most efficient
(Figure 3). This result ties in well with the fact that most of the restaurants
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 601

30

25

20

Restaurants
Number of

15

10

0
Demand Forecast Trainings Storage Diff Sized Portions
Prevention Method

Figure 3. Favored food waste prevention strategies.

reported overproduction as the main reason behind food waste. Training

staff about efficient preparing, portioning and serving was deemed as the
second most viable method of reducing food waste followed by adequate
storage for overproduced food and offering different sized portions of dishes.
Our interviews also corroborated these results, with nearly all our respon-
dents agreeing on effective forecasting to reduce waste. It also helps that this
method is in fact the least costly method of waste reduction among those
listed. Adequate food storage would have required many restaurants to make
hefty investments to install or expand cold storage in their premises and
hence it did not seem viable to most of our interviewees. Also, offering
different size portions was not considered a viable option as it was felt that
the consumer would respond negatively. We do however differ with this
perception since reducing the size of dinner plates across USA has been
found to effectively reduce food waste (ReFED, 2016).
Moving on from prevention, we also study how restaurants work to reduce
and channelize uneaten food. Figure 4 shows that a majority of restaurants
report that they primarily use the surplus for staff meals, followed by use of
surplus as a by-product and donation to charity. Food waste by-products
most commonly refer to edible food products, which were intended for
human consumption, but have been discarded instead, and do not include
inedible or undesirable portions of food stuffs. Examples in this regard can be
of fish trimmings that can be used to make finger fish or pomegranate peels
that can be used in pharmaceutical industry. Segmenting across various
categories of restaurants we find that high-end restaurants primarily use
surpluses as a by-product or donate it to charity, whereas medium- and
low-end restaurants primarily use surplus for staff meals, followed by using it
as a by-product. This does make sense as many high-end restaurants in our
602 M. AAMIR ET AL.

100%
4% 5% 8% 5%
90% 10%
21% 14% 16%
80%
15%
7%
70%
29%
% of Restaurants

60%

50%
54%
40%
70% 71%
30%
50%
20%

10% 21%

0%
Across High End Across Medium End Across Low End Across Sample

Staff Meals By Product Charity Other

Figure 4. Excess food utilization.

sample have their own staff kitchens which produce food for them on a
regular basis, whereas low-end and medium-end restaurants do not have that
luxury owing to cost constraints.
During interviews, we also inquired as to how restaurants separate or track
their food waste and make it efficient for consumption. We found that a
majority of the restaurants just had a separate food waste bin as a primary
source of food waste separation. Three of high-end respondents had saving
counters installed. Saving counters are specially designated places in a restau-
rant where all the food left from plates and buffet trays goes before it is
trashed. At these counters personnel may take usable food before emptying
the trays and plates in the trash. Lastly it was observed that none of the
restaurants use any software or app to separate and track food waste.

Food donation and recycling

Finally, we study attitudes of the restaurants toward the two most effective
food waste channelization strategies: food donation and food recycling. Of
our 58 respondents, all reported liability concerns as the primary barrier for
donation of food. With the PFA actively monitoring and checking the quality
standards across Lahore, liability concerns have become the top most priority
of any restaurant before it donates it food, since no restaurant wants the
liability of any health issues that may arise from the food it has donated.
Figure 5 segments the other most important barriers to food donation
across our restaurant categories. For low- and medium-end restaurants the
trend was similar. Beyond liability, both of these categories reported cost
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 603

100% 3% 6%
90% 20%

28%
80%
33%
70%
% of Restaurants
60% 12%
60% 4%

50%

40%

30% 52% 57%

10%
20%

10% 28%

0% 2%
Across High End Across Med End Across Low End

Where to give? Cost Constraint Transperancy Storage Other

Figure 5. Barriers to food donation (other than perceived liability).

30

25

20
Restaurants
Number of

15

10

0
NGOS Orphanages Slums Schools/Madrassas
Donation Avenues

Figure 6. Preferred donation destinations.

constraints and insufficient storage to be their additional concerns. For restau-

rants in the high-end category the results were a little different. Although, they
also noted liability concerns to be their major hindrance in food donation, they
were more concerned with transparency of the food donation than any other
thing. This intuitively makes sense as high-end restaurants would have more
resources at their disposable and so would not be bothered with issues such as
cost constraints and insufficient storage/transportation. But why is transpar-
ency such a big problem? In our qualitative interview, our interviewees
recounted various anecdotes that questioned the transparency of the existing
food donation process. Restaurants recounted how they made food donations
to low-cost schools and madrasas only to find out later that the management
604 M. AAMIR ET AL.

of the said institutions sold the food donations to low quality food stalls and
restaurants for a profit.
Finally, to the question about where restaurants are most likely to make
food donations, we found that a majority of the restaurants preferred to give
it to homes for the aged and orphanages followed by established NGO’s and
self-identified slums. Public schools and madrasas were the last resort. The
detailed statistics are shown in figure 6.
Food recycling is an avenue which has not yet been fully explored in Pakistan,
and our results corroborate this fact as only six of 58 restaurants engage in food
recycling. Those who do sell their food waste to poultry farms and zoos as animal
feed. It is no surprise that only high-end restaurants engaged in food recycling,
as one of our interview respondents suggested that selling to zoos and farms is
only worthwhile when you have an ample amount of food leftover.

Policy recommendations
The food industry in Pakistan is growing rapidly. Memon (2016) claims that
fast food is the second largest industry in Pakistan. The boom in the restaurant
industry can also be confirmed by the fact that FoodPanda, which is a food
delivery application, generated an additional PKR 1 billion in the FY 2016. In a
country where the gap between the under-fed and the over-fed is increasing
rapidly, thousands of tons of food is wasted every day at different levels of the
supply chain. There is no government body addressing this problem, which is
why it is becoming more challenging. Currently there is no law regarding food
waste in Pakistan. Also, there is no authority in Pakistan that is responsible for
checking on these restaurants with respect to food waste.
We now examine two policy approaches used around the globe that are
aimed at combating food waste: negative sanctions and positive sanctions.

Negative sanctions
Negative sanctions primarily comprise of imposition of fines and taxes on
those enterprises or individuals who are responsible for food waste.
Imposition of fines and taxes is a possible way to regulate the restaurants
and grocery stores to donate their leftover food to charities and community
centers. In this way, the restaurants will become conscious since the industry
is already very competitive and no business would like to bear any extra cost.
Additionally, imposition of fines would also affect the restaurant’s image, and
hence, its clientele. Such models are already in place in many European
nations like Italy and France. In France, any store larger than 4,000 square
feet would have to give away its edible food for human or animal consump-
tion; otherwise they would be liable to heavy fines. Hence it becomes
imperative for the store to sign a contract with a charity organization or
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 605

face a penalty of nearly €3,750 (Chrisafis, 2016). However, one also needs to
be mindful of such policies since they involve regular enforcement and
incentivize restaurants to under-report or hide the amount of food waste.

Positive sanctions
Positive sanctions mostly include incentives to motivate restaurants and gro-
cery stores to donate more of their excess food. Incentives may include
addressing liability concerns. Given that this was reported as the universal
obstacle by the survey participants, this area needs special attention. In the
USA, the Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act provides that as long
as certain requirements are met and if a food donation later causes an injury,
the donor will not be held liable for that injury. The donor may be liable only
for acts constituting gross negligence or for intentional misconduct. The
requirements that must be met are (1) the donated food must be either an
“apparently wholesome food” or an “apparently fit grocery product”; (2) the
donor must donate the items in good faith; (3) the donation must be made to a
nonprofit organization; and (4) the nonprofit organization must distribute the
donated items to needy individuals. This act to take away liability of any
consequence of the donation from the donor has increased food donations
in the recent years in USA (Roberts, 2016). Reiterating, liability issues were the
primary concern of restaurants across all categories before making a donation.
As such a law addressing this can go a long way in increasing food donations
in Pakistan as well. This would also be helpful in avoiding undue litigation in a
country where legal process is both expensive and cumbersome.
Incentivizing restaurants with tax rebates may encourage restaurants to
give away their excess food to the needy and is popular in the West,
especially in the USA. Organizations like GoCopia have emerged that
specialize in collecting excess food from restaurants and issuing them tax
rebate certificates in return, which the restaurants could then use to offset
some of the cost that comes with donating food. This might be a good
strategy for the Pakistani context too, since our study found that cost
constraints were the second most important barrier in food donation for
low-end and medium-end restaurants. However, the government will have
to devise a mechanism through which they can check the transparency of
the channel. Some restaurants might fabricate or overstate the amount in
order to get tax rebates. Another issue is that since Pakistan already has a
low tax base, the introduction of tax rebates would become an extra cost for
the country. However, a major problem with introducing such laws is that
food which is unfit for human consumption might be supplied in the
market. The government will need quality control teams, through which
they are able to ensure that businesses are not misusing the situation, in
order to avoid fines or gain tax rebate.
606 M. AAMIR ET AL.

While framing laws and procedures on food waste and its disposal,
Pakistani authorities may benefit from a recent set of international standards
developed for measuring food waste (WRI, 2016). Adopting such standards
and promoting procedures based on this across the restaurant sector could be
an important measure of policy design in case of Pakistan.

Conclusion
The problem of food waste is huge in Pakistan. However, despite the scale of the
problem, it is rarely given its due share of thought. This study is an attempt to
not only highlight the extent of the problem of food waste in Pakistan but also to
provide an understanding of the reasons causing food waste and its possible
solutions. Focusing on restaurants across Lahore only, we see that the lack of
awareness of this issue is evidenced by the fact that almost none of the surveyed
restaurants have any mechanism in place to quantify their food waste. Moreover,
we also found that reasons for food waste and potential strategies employed by
the restaurant owner to prevent, channelize, or recycle food varies with the
restaurant’s clientele (high-end, medium-end, or low-end). Effective demand
forecasting was seen as the best way to reduce food waste across restaurants,
whereas overproduction and plate waste by customers was found out to be the
major contributors toward food waste. Lastly, we found that barriers to food
donation such as liability concerns and cost constraints seriously hinder the
donation process. Policy measures such as incentivizing donation through tax
rebates or introducing laws that ease the liability concerns of restaurant can go a
long way into effective channelization of excess food.

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Appendix Survey questionnaire

1. How long have you worked in the Hospitality and Catering Industry?
□ Less than 3 months
□ 4–6 months
□ 7-months–1 year
□ 1–3 years
□ Above 3 years
2. How long have you worked at this restaurant?
□ Less than 3 months
□ 4–6 months
□ 7 months–1 year
□ 1–3 years
□ Above 3 years
608 M. AAMIR ET AL.

3. What kind of service does your restaurant offer?

□ Food on the go, fast food, take away
□ Buffet
□ Ala-carte
□ Dinner Buffet + Ala-carte
□ Dinner Buffet + Hi-Tea + Ala-carte
4. How would you describe the level of your food preparation?
□ Fully prepared (ready to serve)
□ Part prepared/half cooked (e.g. use of pre-cut fish, vegetables, marinated meat only to be
fried, readymade sauces, etc.)
□ Unprepared (food is prepared and cooked from scratch)
5. How much is your seating capacity? _______

Food Waste Reasons and Reduction

6 a. Where do you think your food waste comes from? What is the primary reason of food
waste according to you?
□ Over production
□ Food Spoilage
□ Expiration
□ During food preparation and cooking
□ During service (portioning and serving)
□ Plate waste from customers
6 b. What is the 2nd most important reason for food waste in your restaurant?
□ Over production
□ Food Spoilage
□ Expiration
□ During food preparation and cooking
□ During service (portioning and serving)
□ Plate waste from customers
7. What do you consider to be the most effective way to reduce food waste?
□ Demand forecasting
□ Adequate food storage for over produced food
□ Labor trainings to cut losses in portioning and serving
□ Offer different portion sized dishes
8. Does your restaurant have any food waste prevention strategy? (Y/N)
9. How does your restaurant mostly channelize your excess food?
□ Use surplus food for staff meals
□ Use food as a by-product
□ Donate to charity (e.g. turn into soup, stocks garnishes, etc.)
□ Other
9 b. What are some of the techniques you use to separate and track food waste?
□ Separate food waste bin
□ Software or App
□ Saving Counters
□ Other
 JOURNAL OF FOOD PRODUCTS MARKETING 609

10. Rank in ascending order, the days in which your face most food excess and waste?
□ Monday
□ Tuesday
□ Wednesday
□ Thursday
□ Friday
□ Saturday
□ Sunday
11. Does Ramadan season entail more food waste than average?
12. On average during which months do you feel there is more food waste in your restaurant?
Rank from 1 to 4 (1 being least 4 being most)
□ Jan–Mar
□ April–June
□ July–Sep
□ Oct–Dec

Unsaleable Food Donations for Human Consumption

Please only include unsaleable food in your answer below. Unsaleable food refers to food that
would have been discarded but was instead donated to feed people. Do not include food that is
prepared expressly for donation, for example through a holiday program or during a disaster
recovery.
13. How much unsaleable food would you estimate your restaurant donates for human
consumption per months is Kgs?
14. Where and to whom do you most often donate your excess food?
□ NGO’s
□ Orphanages/Old Homes
□ Public Schools/Madrassahs
□ Self-identified slums/squatter slums
15. Are there barriers, either internal or external, that prevent you from donation more food? (Y/N)
16 a. If you answered yes to the above question, please tell what is the most important barrier
in food donation for you?
□ Liability concerns (Legal)
□ Insufficient refrigeration and/or storage on site
□ Transportation constraints
□ Cost constraints of donating food
□ Lack of transparency in food donation process
□ Do not know where to donate
16 b. What, according to you is the 2nd most important barrier faced by your restaurant
important barrier while donating food?
□ Liability concerns (Legal)
□ Insufficient refrigeration and/or storage on site
□ Transportation constraints
□ Cost constraints of donating food
□ Lack of transparency in food donation process
□ Do not know where to donate
610 M. AAMIR ET AL.

17. Rate your restaurants interest in participating in an established food donation program
□ No Interest
□ Low interest
□ Mod interest
□ Very interested
□ Don’t know
□ Already participate

Food Waste Reuse and Recycling

Definitions:
- Food waste can be defined as any solid or liquid food substance, raw or cooked, which is
discarded, or intended or required to be discarded. Food wastes are the organic residues
generated by the processing, handling, storage, sale, preparation, cooking, and serving of foods.
- Pre-consumer food waste refers to waste produced in the production of a product and can
often be referred to as back of the house waste. (scraps, etc.)
- Post-consumer food waste refers to waste produced by the end user or customer and can often
be referred to as front of the house food waste or plate waste.
18. Does your restaurant currently, recycle any pre- or post-consumer waste? (Y/N)
19. If yes, what is your average volume of pre-consumer food waste that is recycled per month in
Kgs?
20. How are you most likely to recycle pre-consumer food waste?
□ Composting
□ Animal Feed
□ Other (please specify)
21. What is your average volume of post-consumer food waste that is recycled per month in
kgs? (Leave blank if not applicable)
22. How are you most likely to recycle pre-consumer food waste? Composting
□ Animal Feed
□ Other (please specify)
23. Are there barriers, internal or external, that prevent your company from recycling more
food waste? (Y/N)
24. If you answered yes to the above question, then please check all barriers that apply
□ Liability concerns
□ Transportation Constraints
□ Insufficient recycling options
□ Other
25. Rate your restaurants interest in participating in an established food recycling program
□ No Interest
□ Low interest
□ Moderate interest
□ Highly interested
□ Don’t know
□ Already participating
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