Estratégias empregadas para redução do desperdício de alimentos em unidades de alimentação e nutrição: uma revisão bibliográfica.

Abstract

Food and Nutrition Units (UAN) are places that aim to distribute food safely and appropriately to sick and healthy communities. There are several factors that contribute to food waste in these places, which may be related to inadequate menu planning, portioning of meals, profile of diners and lack of awareness about the topic. This work aimed to carry out a bibliographic survey on the importance of the application of strategies aimed at raising awareness against food waste in Food and Nutrition Units. A systematic literature review was conducted using as sources of consultation, scientific articles and dissertations through the Scielo, Google Academic, and PubMed journal databases from 2013 to 2023.Fourteen articles were selected that demonstrated that the main causes related to food waste are associated with inadequate portioning of meals either by the diners or employees, service and menu planning, unqualified labor force and lack of knowledge about the importance of the integral utilization of food. Moreover, the effectiveness of awareness campaigns with various methodologies applied in UAN that contributed to the reduction in the rest-ingesta of the intervention sites, which were possible through educational actions that promote awareness and voluntary changes, which can be projected in other environments, being primordial to highlight the role of diners and employees in the food waste process.Thus, there are several causes that contribute to food waste. Awareness campaigns are efficient tools to reduce food waste and when associated with other management strategies can bring positive effects to food services.