Table 1 Food waste accounting methods.
From: Assessment and scenario hypothesis of food waste in China based on material flow analysis
Method | Description | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
Bookkeeping approach | Respondents are asked to recall the food wasted each day by the researcher, or keep a record in a bookkeeping format | The raw and cooked food can be differentiated | Respondents are vulnerable to research interventions to change their daily food consumption behavior |
‘Archeological’ approach | Researcher checks the food waste in the bins on a daily basis and estimates and records the type and weight of food discarded | Low intervention for the respondents | Missing food that was dumped down the drain and disposed of by the rubbish disposal; difficult to distinguish between raw and cooked weights of leftover food |
Weighing of plate leftovers | Researchers observe and measure the type and weight of food left on plates | High accuracy of data | Time-consuming, labor-intensive and limited sample size obtained |
Infer from secondary data | Calculated using food purchase data and food consumption data, using the difference and subtraction method to obtain | Low intervention for the respondents | Few data sets available, accuracy of data questionable |
