Managing Leftover Food from Public Food Establishments. Case Study: Alba Iulia City.

Recovering leftover food draws the attention on the issue of managing leftover food in restaurants and the available solutions taken into account by the food industry representatives. It's importance lies both in environmental terms, by reducing pollution and conserving energy, and also from the economical point of view by creating jobs. The aim of the present study was to analyse the situation of leftover food from public establishments in Alba Iulia and to highlight the managing solutions in which these leftovers can be harnessed. In order to conduct this investigation a survey was implemented by applying a questionnaire in public food units from Alba Iulia city. In this context, 100 respondents with leadership functions in public food establishments, namely managers, owners or administrator, were interviewed. The data was processed by using IBM SPSS Statistics v. 22.0. The survey reveals the lack of experience of those in charge of these public food establishments, the majority don't have the necessary and mandatory knowledge and experience to handle this type of food debris. Given that the fact that pollution rests a major problem nowadays, a special attention must be given to the issue of leftover food from public food establishments by identifying the real problems in these units This research contributes to a greater understanding on how we can relate both food and waste systems, and provides recommendations for managing leftover food in public food establishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]