Keywords

1 Introduction

Sustainability is important to maintain the life of the generations at a decent level by pursuing the communities’ economic, environmental, and social needs without wasting resources. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were suggested by the United Nations in 2015 to do that. Part of these goals were focused on rational consumption and production of resources by lowering waste, which food is part of it, while others concentrated on ending hunger worldwide.

Food waste and loss are hitting alarming numbers in deteriorating resources, and money through the supply chain from production to consumption. According to Filimonau & De Coteau (2019), food waste (FW) is classified as food thrown after consumption, usually in homes and hospitality sectors and mainly found in developed countries; as higher consumption reflects a sophisticated economic position. The sub-goal number 12.3 focuses on halving FW per capita at the consumption level and food losses in other phases by 2030.

Many countries are following the Paris Agreement and suggesting targets to limit this problem by raising the awareness of the people. This research will focus on exploring the reasons behind FW in the hospitality sector of Dubai, one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Aiming to follow up with the national and international sustainability goals of the country.

1.1 Research Motivation (Significance of the Study)

The importance of studying FW and loss is based on many reasons. Briefly, around one-third of the food is wasted or lost through the supply chain, globally. Enough to feed people in hunger around the world; about 820.8 million people (Jones 2017). Environmentally, methane gas is released when FW is decomposed; it is twenty-five more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide (CO2), (Abiad & Meho 2018). Besides releasing around 3.3 billion tons of CO2eq yearly from the energy used through the supply chain (Jribi et al. 2020).

The status of the Emirate of Dubai as a centre of international trading, second in having five-star hotels, and fourth in visited cities (Dubai - Wikipedia n.d.) increased its exposure to more FW as more tourists are targeting it yearly, besides having more than 200 nationalities living in it, increasing the demand on varieties and quantities of cuisines. More than 20,000 food outlets were available in Dubai in 2022 to meet the rising demands of the people (DubaiMunicipality 2022).

Land and water are two natural resources that are lost aligning with food loss and waste. Water depleted from avoidable FW globally is measured to be 82e9 m3 from freshwater surfaces or subsurface resources through its supply chain (Bluewater footprint), (FAO 2017, cited in Coudard et al. 2021). In UAE, it is about 790 m3/capita/year, the highest in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) countries, (Berjan et al. 2018), with UAE having the least fresh water sources and a high percentage is used in agriculture (around 84% of the total water footprint). (Dubai’s restaurant numbers continue to grow - News | Khaleej Times n.d.)

The land used in farming is prone to lose natural species and creatures living in it leading to a loss of biodiversity and an imbalanced ecological system. However, lowering FW amounts by 38% lowers the loss of biodiversity by around 30% and other environmental impacts by 41%, (Beretta & Hellweg 2019). Table 1 proves that the highest impacts come from UAE.

Table 1. The impacts quantified in countries per capita from food waste on the environment (Skaf et al. 2021)
Full size table

On the humanitarian side, the poor rate in UAE is around 19.5%, representing people gaining less than 80 AED per day (approx. 22 USD), (Long 2018). Economically, wasted resources contribute to higher monetary loss. Water depletion contributes to a loss of USD 164 billion yearly globally (around 602 billion AED) (FAO 2014 cited in Jones 2017). Global food waste is estimated to cost around USD1 trillion yearly, (Jribi et al. 2020). While it costs around 282 million dirhams (about 77 million US dollars) in Dubai alone yearly, and around 6 billion dirhams yearly in UAE country (about 1.63 billion US dollars), (Sewatkar & Al Khayyat 2022). On a smaller scale, hospitality businesses will increase their profit and lower their costs by 14% when reducing FW.

UAE is making efforts to recover food waste in the country mainly using it in anaerobic digestion, donation, and animal feed. Besides, working on national plans such as “Zero Hunger” by 2051, proposed by The Emirates Council for Food Security. However, the theoretical part of preventing FW in the hospitality sector is minimal and needs further research which this research will suggest to do by suggesting research gaps to be worked on in this topic.

2 Methodology and Approach

This paper uses the method of literature review to address the gap in information in the Emirate of Dubai about FW in the hospitality sector to come up with knowledge gaps that could be addressed in the future by researchers.

3 Theoretical Underpinning (Literature Review)

3.1 International Studies

Target, Measure and Act plan, adopted in the UK, USA and other countries, suggests measuring FW to solve the problem, eased by the use of new technologies, or participating in the initiative “buy today, eat today” for lower-level food services which cannot afford these technologies, to lower their FW from expired items, (Soma et al. 2021 cited in Al-Obadi et al. 2022).

Many reasons for FW are common between countries as the problem is global. Some of these reasons are offering long menus (which increases item storage and preparation waste), poor forecasting (Filimonau & Ermolaev 2021) and ethnic restaurants such as in Chinese ones in UK, (Filimonau, Nghiem & Wang 2021). In Addition, poor storing, tourists, low prices of food, and portion sizes, (Okumus 2019), (Wang et al. 2017), and (Ravandi & Jovanovic 2019). Other causes could be overproduction, and others specific to buffet food services, which was confirmed to be one of the top types contributing to FW, caused by reasons like preparing food one day before the buffet time, discarding foods after 4 h of display…etc. (Papargyropoulou et al. 2016).

The motivation for FW reduction is saving money as it is the ultimate goal in businesses, (Neff et al. n.d. as cited in Jones 2017). Besides, achieving the customers’ happiness and satisfaction through improved communication between customers and management. While national policies also have a significant share in encouraging guests and managers to prevent it.

Thus, many strategies are used globally to lower FW such as offering people discounts with portion reduction, increasing workers’ wages to become more efficient, portion control, demand forecasting, the use of the ‘pay-as-you-throw’ fining method for business owners (Filimonau, Nghiem & Wang 2021). Plate size also plays an important psychological role, as people need to see the plate full, thus reducing its size will help to reduce about 20% of food waste, (Al-Obadi et al. 2022). Moreover, changing to different styles of buffets will make a big difference such as mixed restaurant types, or weighted ones, (Ravandi & Jovanovic 2019). However, the most important is to educate the people through awareness campaigns in all society parts; institutes, schools, and universities, especially about FW problems, labelling, expiration dates…etc., (Pinto et al. 2018 cited in Al-Obadi et al. 2022). Lastly, using new, efficient technologies through the supply chain, using intelligent scales, using cultivated seafood, and using 3D printing to minimize FW by using leftovers to invent new items are also recent reduction strategies for FW, (Taste Tomorrow 2021).

The progress reports in the world show that many new food services are joining and implementing the Target-Measure-Act approach such as the UK. Other countries are introducing laws and national plans, such as The Chinese Food Waste Law and the French Law. Moreover, food summits and conferences are taking over periodically. Besides assigning an international day for food loss and waste awareness on the 29th of September each year. (SDG Target 12.3 on Food Loss and Waste: 2021 Progress Report | Champions 12.3 2021), (Event: International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste 2022 | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD 2022).

3.2 Regional Studies

Food loss and waste rise to 44% in Arab countries. Around 34% of it is from FW at the consumption level. The composition of it may differ between countries due to their eating habits and diets; UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)’s cereals make up about 52% of the waste as it is a local cuisines’ main item.

Available data about wasted food in the hospitality sector of the UAE is deficient, regardless of the high percentage of FW there, around 224 kg per capita per year (Kohli 2021). The only direct paper about FW in the hospitality sector was done by Pirani & Arafat (2016) in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It distributed surveys and measured waste amounts to discover the main reasons behind the increased waste were faults in forecasting, mainly from the extra 20% of food preparations, the food varieties and the serving style and times. More recent papers explained new technologies used to help lower FW, like smart fridges, (Lamba 2021). Besides, a paper checked the percentage of media interaction with the FW subject according to gender. Other international papers mentioned the environmental impacts of FW internationally and in the UAE.

On the other hand, UAE has many initiatives and companies that are concerned about FW in hospitality or other sectors. Institutions are such as the UAE Food Bank, the Red Crescent, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) branch, and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) whom is responsible for sponsoring campaigns and initiatives such as the Food for Future Summit held in Expo 2020 in February 2022. Besides, Dubai Municipality who is responsible for the food safety programs and Goumbook, an environmental enterprise that offers education and awareness about food waste.

UAE’s attempts to fight FW are represented by leading by example. Thus additional initiatives are held in the country, which include signing a pledge (UAE Food Waste Pledge) by leading hospitality sector institutes such as Armani Hotel Dubai, Fairmont The Palm, Hilton Dubai Jumeirah, and Rotana Hotel. They pledged to reduce FW with the cooperation of Winnow Solutions “smart scales”, (winnow n.d.).

“Ne’maa initiative” or “Blessing Pledge”, is a recent initiative structured by the Emirates Foundation with the participation of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) in June 2022. It aims to encourage all sectors of the UAE community to be responsible and limit wasting food through all stages of the supply chain, (Sewatkar & Al Khayyat 2022). Besides, their initiative in collaboration with Blue Planet Green People which is “I’mperfect initiative”, a national campaign aims to support local food projects and raise awareness, (H. AlMarashi 2022).

Dubai Sustainable Tourism is responsible for lowering FW in hospitality sector through forcing nineteen regulations for hotels to become more sustainable. Two of these regulations are “Green Event” and “Waste Management Plan”. The former forces the rules of giving pre-plans for the event and post-event reports to lower the chances of extra FW. While the later regulation aims to lower the disposal to landfills using reducing, reusing and recycling (DTCM 2018).

3.3 Knowledge Gap

“Albert Einstein said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 min thinking about the problem and 5 min thinking about solutions.” While Tony Robbins said the opposite: “Leaders spend 5% of their time on the problem and 95% of their time on the solution.” (Harding 2019). That is the Emirate of Dubai’s situation in UAE, there are many solutions to recover the food waste, redistribute it, compost it…etc. and several organisations who are working on solutions. However, the studies on the root causes of the problem to try to prevent it are minimal. This research believes Einstein’s words supported by the recent study by Essam, Gill & Alders (2022), working in the Dubai Municipality, who mentioned that the theoretical part of the FW problem, especially in the hospitality sector in Dubai, is lacking and needs deep studying as wasted quantities are enormous in this sector.

To support the gap in the theoretical data about Dubai, surveys asking about causes of FW and investigating level of the people knowledge are recommended to take place in this emirate and other parts of the UAE country to reach a country-level awareness and suggest a framework that may allow food services to follow. These surveys may take part for users of the services and workers in them as waste could be from consumers as well as kitchen waste. This is important to achieve the sustainable vision of the country aligned with SDGs 12.3 of halving food waste by 2030 and SDGs 2 of achieving zero hunger. Moreover, studies on food loss in ports are in equal importance as there is a massive loss in these areas caused by food safety measures. Specific studies can be done depending on type of food service as each one has some special characteristics that need to be worked on, especially buffets and coffee shops in UAE.

Winnow Solutions has saved a lot of FW and money for the biggest hotels in Dubai, such as Hilton Dubai saved more than $70,000 and 100,000 meals since 2016 and a reduction of around 70% in waste. Fairmont Hotel also saved around $225,000 - and 170,000 tonnes of CO2e, with a reduction of 47% of FW. At the same time, Armani Hotel is saving around 117,000 meals yearly (winnow n.d.). These reports can be an influence for smaller and other hotels through the encouragement of institutes and the government. Researchers could help smaller businesses to make feasibility studies on their behalf that may push them to start working, as it is beneficial for future FW studies to be accompanied by quantitative, observational ones to quantify them. Observing customers’ behavioural attitudes could be more accurate to analyse and suggest the suitable FW prevention strategies needed.

4 Conclusion

Food waste is an alarming, global problem. As easy as some people see it, as hard it is to eliminate its huge effects and the many factors that contribute to it. Different from other environmental problems, food waste damages the three pillars of sustainability; environmental, social and economic. UAE is one of these highly affected countries by this problem and ranks second in wasting fresh water globally from FW. Efforts have started to control this problem in the country, especially in the hospitality sector, which is a huge contributor to FW, as the Emirate of Dubai is a tourist hub. However, theoretical and data information must be collected upon this paper’s recommendation to reach the country’s goals.