Challenges of Food Storage and Preservation in Restaurants in Katsina Metropolitant, Katsina State. Nigeria

Abstract

Restaurants produce the greatest amount of food waste and loss in the food supply chains of most developing economies including Nigeria. Reducing all food losses will result in a more secure global food system and it is important for us to show how restaurants services can reduce food waste in their domain. Food waste is one of the major challenging issues facing most restaurants as well as food services operators as it post many negative economic and environmental health impacts. Thus this study examines challenges of food preservation in restaurants, providing data and insights with a case study on Katsina city. Primary and secondary sources of data were adopted as a method for the data collection. From the finding of the study, most restaurants in the study area conduct an inventory checks on a daily basis, to stock up on required materials and gather understanding on which items are being used. In addition, restaurants keep a regulated check to ensure minimum possible preparations on certain items need to be prepared in excess. It was also found that, fresh foods purchased have a reported 5.8-fold greater food waste compared to frozen food purchases in most restaurants in Katsina. Obtaining such data is a challenge future research into food waste and preservation will need to address so that it can be transferred to food product development operations for maximum impact. It concluded that Katsina restaurants do not recognize the need to have a scientific approach for the treatment of their surpluses and mitigation of the same. The true solution lies in creating heightened levels of awareness in the restaurant industry about correct waste management practices and stringent measures need to be taken to ensure that these are adequately followed.

Keywords

• Food Storage
• Food Preservation
• Katsina metropolitant

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