The attitude of pupils and students towards responsible food management

Food waste is an environmental problem, because the food that is discarded burdens the environment. Preventing food waste can be an important educational topic for educational institutions. The purpose of our research was to determine the amount of food waste in the observed pupil and student restaurants, to identify what causes the discarding of food and to formulate proposals for reducing the amount of discards that are created in the context of nutritional care for pupils and students. The sample included 59 pupils and 60 students who were the subscribers of the PEF 123 restaurant at the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana. The process of data collection was the survey. The amount of food waste was determined by a 15-day monitoring of the amount of food leftovers from pupil and student lunches. The results showed that the average daily amount of total food waste was 40.90 kg. The quantitative analysis of food waste per pupil showed that a pupil left unconsumed 0.10 kg of food a day. The most common causes of food waste are mainly related to the excessive amounts of dishes served at meals. The amount of food waste could be reduced by choosing the size of food portions, by introducing self-service, the possibility of taking food leftovers home for later consumption, and by involving pupils and students in food supply planning. We estimate that educational institutions and 762 food service providers could have an impact on reducing the amount of food waste by conducting educational activities to raise the pupils’ and students' awareness of responsible food behavior