Do hospitality managers' attitudes and behaviours, along with their business contexts, impact food waste?

The hospitality and food service (HaFS) sector is a significant source of food waste in the UK. Despite policy efforts to reduce this through local and national initiatives, the relationship between behaviours and attitudes of HaFS managers and the context in which their businesses operate is not widely understood in relation to how these might impact food waste. Current research to address this is limited and I therefore aim to bridge this knowledge gap by interlinking context (venue, geography, policy, competition factors) with managerial behaviours to holistically assess how and why certain food waste prevention measures could be more effective.
Based in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this research will be conducted in collaboration with two prominent local food waste organisations (Project BIND and Food Newcastle) as they present a valuable opportunity to access local HaFS managers and general local HaFS business data.
Together, we will investigate how manager's attitudes and behaviours along with contextual factors, contribute to food waste and food redistribution at the city level. Using a citizen science methodology, we will conduct surveys to map and describe the contextual factors influencing food waste. I will then develop a conceptual model linking context factors and managerial factors that might determine waste. From this, I aim to develop a field experiment to test alternative interventions to mitigate food waste or improve its redistribution to vulnerable populations.
The path to impact is a three-point strategy by contributing to academic theory, policy recommendations and social welfare.