IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v33y2025i3p3348-3376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Culinary Conservation: Pioneering Efforts to Minimize Food Waste in Ghana's Fast‐Food Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Faizal Adams
  • Amos Mensah
  • Ayat Ullah
  • Jonathan Quaye
  • Bernard Kwamena Cobbina Essel
  • Seth Etuah

Abstract

Food waste presents a significant challenge to sustainable development, with fast‐food enterprises playing a major role in this issue. This study explores the complexities of food waste management among fast‐food vendors in Ghana's Ashanti region, providing insights into the quantity, determinants, mitigation strategies, and economic impacts of food waste. Using a mixed‐method approach that includes food waste audits and surveys, we estimated the annual food waste at approximately 464 MT. Key factors influencing waste generation include education, experience, and waste management training. Demand forecasting and inventory management emerged as crucial strategies for mitigating waste, underscoring the importance of proactive planning in reducing food waste. Despite these efforts, waste disposal remains a prevalent issue, highlighting the need for more comprehensive recycling or anaerobic digestion solutions to address environmental and societal costs. Our findings indicate that enterprises with minimal food waste achieve higher profitability and larger employee sizes, demonstrating the economic advantages of effective waste reduction. Based on this evidence, we recommend five practical policies to tackle food waste challenges: implementing education and training programs, providing financial incentives, launching public awareness campaigns, enforcing regulatory measures, and fostering partnerships. By adopting these policies, policymakers and stakeholders can support fast‐food vendors in adopting sustainable practices, advancing broader sustainability goals, and building a more resilient and equitable food system.

Suggested Citation

  • Faizal Adams & Amos Mensah & Ayat Ullah & Jonathan Quaye & Bernard Kwamena Cobbina Essel & Seth Etuah, 2025. "Sustainable Culinary Conservation: Pioneering Efforts to Minimize Food Waste in Ghana's Fast‐Food Industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 3348-3376, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:3348-3376
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.3289
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3289
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.3289?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:3348-3376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.