FOOD WASTAGE IN INDIAN MESS HALLS SRISHTI INSTITUTE OF ART, DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
VIKRANT MISHRA BACHELORS IN DESIGN INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND DESIGN PRACTICES SUBMITTED ON 23RD OCTOBER 2018
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BACKGROUND
“Just one quarter of all wasted food could feed the 795 million undernourished people around the world who suffer from hunger”(Bozhinova et al. 2016).
Food Wastage is among one of the leading causes of our depleting and limited natural resources. First world countries being the front runners in contributing to this waste category. One would expect well established economies to be better functioning in terms of this matter but the facts have proven otherwise. As we narrow our lens to India we notice that this problem exists here too. An article by The CSR Journal claims that the food waste generated by India amounts to nearly 58,000 crores per year (Food Wastage in India 2017). On taking a closer look we can see that the country has some cultural practices embedded in the minds of citizens. A good example would be weddings. The host tends to ensure that there is excess food available as a guest must never leave the wedding on an empty stomach. This ritual is leading to the truck loads of food being washed down the drain. A similar food serving scenario is the mess hall in large institutions. Food is prepared in extremely large quantities and many factors affect whether the food will be consumed entirely or not. It also happens to be among the leading contributors of food wastage in the country due to over-serving, overconsumption, food production mishaps and much more. This seemed to stand out as a great space to study and intervene with a design solution. The paper proposes solutions that tricks consumer psychology. The design solution aims to impact consumption quantity and change the way food is served. The re-design solution will hopefully make self-serving habits better and enforce individual consumption consciousness.
FIELD RESEARCH Unfortunately, the field of study being looked at had close to no primary data available for one to research upon. In order to understand the problem area, only primary statistical data gathered from the field would be of any value. This was the reason behind surveying a mess hall system in person. Apart from learning about the whereabouts of food that occurs in mess halls, there was also a need to understand the external spaces that food journeys through i.e, off plate. Interviews with the head staff members were conducted to gather that data.
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These surveys and interviews collectively acted as an excellent source material to study. The learnings gathered are listed below.
LOCATION
Srishti Institute of Art Design & Technology is located in Yelahanka New Town, one of the major suburbs in Bangalore city. The area constitutes of multiple colleges and independent residents who live in an assortment of flats, individual bungalows and gated communities. Since it was known that a lot of college students are residents within the area, the presence of PG’s and hostels was obvious. Due to primarily being private colleges, the systems established found were mostly PG’s. being directly in contact with the PG system of Srishti Institute, it was a more feasible option to study them. Yelahanka New Town is a pretty large area with Srishti students present close to the college vicinity and also sporadically present in external apartments and gated communities living independently. The Survey did not study those present outside PG systems as it does not have a regulated system of food production. Narrowing down further, it was found that the PG system established has multiple PG’s existing within it. Each located within close vicinities of each other but being run in different ways. The common factor was that these PG systems had a similar system in terms of their mess halls where food was served. To gauge the general stakeholders of this PG system a survey was conducted. Names of major PG owners were listed down to gather a general number of the students present in each of these establishments. The image mentioned below is the data that was obtained.
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AGE DEMOGRAPHIC
Students go to college at varying paces. Some are studying their double degrees, some who have taken a couple of years off before joining into the college. On obtaining the age groups of the people surveyed it was found that there were broadly two sections within the age groups. One constituted the students who had an early start in education; those who are early on track in terms of their academic cycle. On the other hand, the second group constitutes of students who are aged 21 and above. This age group defines those who are right on track and maybe pursuing their second degrees. It helped us establish the age average of the students surveyed. The food consumption patterns were easier to establish with this data. Those who were below 21 showed that they consumed food less number of times in their mess halls. On the other hand, those above 21 displayed more maturity when it came to consumption. They invested more occasions eating in the mess and not outside to save on money. The age distribution is depicted in the chart below.
CONSUMPTION PATTERNS
Once the age demographic was established it seemed suitable to study their consumption habits. Time is of the essence for students going to college. With their busy schedules many students tend to skip eating in the mess. Many who do visit the mess take a lot of food out of hunger but do not consume it entirely due to overestimation. Since time came up as an important parameter, we surveyed how fast or slow one generally eats. The data collected shows that most of the students did invest their time in a calculated manner when it was about mess visits. Followed by that, an equal number of slow and fast readers were recorded.
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FOOD PREFERENCES
The freedom of choice that students obtain once they live away from their families shows in this report. It is interesting to note that most of the students surveyed preferred self-cooked food. It resonated with their homesickness and need for homely food. Right after this category is the second leading category- Restaurant food. Restaurant food is mostly unavailable when one is at home with their families. The ease of availability, optimum monthly allowances and un-compromised taste factor contributes to the students preferring restaurant food. Finally, mess food follows these two categories as the third preferred option for these students.
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COOKING HABITS
In an astonishing contrast to the previous data obtained where 40% of the students preferred self-cooked food, comes our next chart. Almost 71% of the student’s cook less than four times in a week with 5% who don’t like cooking at all. On the other end of the spectrum, 15% of the student’s cook every day. This is unfortunately still a smaller number when compared to the number of students who don’t cook. The contrast in the data makes one question the authenticity of the answers provided by the student. The results are conflicting but are a good source of study about the psychology target.
PLATE SECTION USAGE
To understand functionality and usage habits the survey also questioned students about how many sections they really use within mess plates. The maximum usage of three sections seems to be influenced by the menu PG’s usually prepare. There is always a lentil curry along with an additional vegetable curry consumed with rotis or a portion of rice. Some PG’s have larger plates with 6 sections in them. These plates aren’t used entirely as it doesn’t seem that there is a need for it. Four sections are used out of the entire available space explaining the unencessity of the design. There was even a new option created by those answering the survey titled “Depends”. This 25% explain the constantly changing aspect of the menus in certain PG’s. It was learnt that some PG’s reserved leftovers from the previous meal to avoid waste. This increased the number of items available and hence the need for the extra compartments.
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PLATE REFILLING HABITS
Despite the fact that mess food is the third choice for students to pick, they do consume it in a healthy quantity. 49% of the students go in for a second helping of food due to the excess availability. They do not think about how much a body needs but are mostly focused on filling their stomachs to the brim. The free food psychology of a person consuming more when a surplus is available is displayed here. 38% of the group said they served themselves twice. It was observed that the students actually tend to over-serve themselves only in their first serving. Those who were serving themselves twice are usually very hungry or the mess is providing them with an exotic preparation on certain days of the week. An example of that would be, Umesh mess. They serve non veg preparations of food only on three days of the week which is almost half of the week.
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DESIGN IMPROVISATION
Understanding the need of the audience is primary. This was the reason behind the last question of the survey “Do you think the design of the mess plate can be improved?” 85% of the students believe that the design does need to alter. They also provided side note suggestions about what they would wish to see changed. Some said that the sections which holds curries could be deeper so that one serving would be enough. Some pointed out the unnecessary extra sections and asked that they be removed from the existing design. This strong verdict explains that users are most definitely facing issues in terms of the functionality of mess plates. It also asserts the aim of this project to reduce the waste being generated by enabling a better food consumption experience.
TALK WITH THE STAFF
In an interview with the head chef of Sandhya PG the entire food preparation system was understood. The name of the head chef is Yogesh. The ingredients are sourced from their monthly suppliers. They are then stored based on them being wet or dry. The Dry groceries include lentils, pulses and spices which are stored for a maximum of 15 days only. Wet groceries include vegetables and meats which are stored only up to 3 days. On some occasions these materials go bad and are discarded instantly. From the storage these ingredients then go into the kitchen. The ingredients are prepared (i.e. chopped, peeled or grated) or used as is for the cooking process. There are two types of waste generated during this process. The waste generated after chopping or peeling the ingredients and the other waste generated when the food prepared does not match up to the standard quality. These are also discarded instantly. Finally, the food prepared enters the mess hall where it is served for consumption. Here the food again falls into two categories. Untouched food, which the students haven’t eaten. This untouched leftover food is usually consumed by the staff or
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discarded if in excess. This is because the food cannot be saved for later. The second category is Touched food. This is the food being consumed by students. Here the food that they over-serve themselves is what goes to the waste. All this waste generated aggregates to nearly 60-70 kg’s of food waste per day. That sums up to nearly 20-30 meals per day. This data is astonishing because it almost sums up to 2100 kgs of food waste per month from just one PG. This waste is ultimately collected by the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagra Palike).
EXISTING SOLUTIONS
The existing mess plates and glasses in the mess were looked at with a closer lens. The largest plate that is available in the mess is steel in colour and is made of stainless steel. There are two rectangular and three circular section which makes it a total of five sections in the plate. The depth of each section is close to .8 inch. These plates are used for the two big meals of the day i.e., lunch and dinner. The second plate available is made of brown polypropylene plastic. There are three compartments for liquids, two large rectangular compartments for the staple items and one section for the spoons or forks. That makes up six sections in total. The depth is close to an inch. The next plate is the breakfast plate, which is also made of stainless steel. It has two main circular compartments and one rectangular compartment. The design allows just enough space for the usual 2-3 item menu offered for breakfast. There are also flat plates made up of melamine that are available in the mess. These flat melamine plates are available for every meal. The three section stainless steel plates are only available in the mornings for breakfast. The other five and six section plates are available for lunch, snacks and dinner. Along with these assortments of plates, the mess also offers some plastic and melamine bowls and glasses. The cutlery is made of steel. The main materials that make all these products are melamine, plastic, polypropylene and stainless steel. The drinking glass provided is made of PET (Poly ethylene terephthalate) plastic. There are smaller stainless steel glasses available in addition, which are mainly for drinking tea and coffee. There is no restriction on how many plates, bowls or glasses a person will use to eat their food. Anyone can pick up as man and whatever one feels like in order to eat the food in. The ergonomics of how the plate is held is depicted in the image below.
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SOLUTION The primary issues that were unearthed through the research conducted above were Excessive food portions - Food loss due to food particles getting stuck in crevices and plate edges - Colours of plates used were appetising - Filling up plates to the volumetric brim due to availability in abundance 10 To tackle these problems the solution being proposed is a redesigned plate model. The plate is modular with wider surface and lesser volume to enable less food serving and ease of organising food. The colour of the re-designed plates is proposed to be tones of grey so that it doesn’t feel like an alien element in a kitchen space. The colour grey would also highlight food more and make it seem wholesome. Grey is adaptable and versatile too. The new design is also inclusive of visual markers that subconsciously indicate how much a person must fill up their plates, again helping to regulate the food intake. The design doesn’t just help in regulating food intake and reducing food waste, it also helps in conserving resources involved post consumption too.
CONCLUSION
Food is being unconsciously over-served, over consumed and hence wasted in many scenarios. But cafeterias and mess halls in India stand out prominently as one of the leading spaces with the problem of food wastage. The main reasons for it being the lack of awareness, easy availability of resources and abundance. The availability of choices and non-depleting supply of food causes over-serving and hence food wastage. Multiple investments and factors like harvesting, cultivation, transportation, packaging and cooking almost get neglected during the process of selfserving, contributing more to the already existing food wastage scenario. This problem was thoroughly investigated at a smaller scale in an accessible space. The investigation used multiple experiments and behavioural study tools to gather a
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wholesome understanding of the problem. From the observations and the derived insights there are some possible solutions that could be imposed to not stop but reduce the amount of food being over-served and thrown. The possible solution should not just focus at the key element of saving food but also at developing better food consumption habits. It must help the user become more aware and conscious about the quantity of food being served and consumed. The solutions must look at sectors where minimal human interaction would be necessary and the food problem is tackled. It must involve discussions on re-design of cutlery, the food hall eating spaces, regulated food serving techniques and understanding the weekly meal production cycles better. The design solution should also look at regulating consumption by providing modular solutions for the plates based on the meal being served. Prevalent Indian food serving and consumption habits must be kept in mind to ensure that the solution devised doesn't feel alien when introduced into the society and social systems. solutions that trick the psychology of a consumer at the mess hall by making excessive consumption evident and limiting food that falls into an individual’s plate. It also proposes the use of colours, textures and visual markers to impact consumption quantity and changed ways of food serving in the mess hall space. The solution of re-designing the mess plate also aims at making self-serving habits better at an individual level. It aims to enforce individual consumption consciousness in a fluid non-intrusive manner. It will also enable easier cutlery management and reduce cost of materials expended post consumption while cleaning up the dishes too.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bozhinova, Katerina, Elliott Brennan, Danielle Nierenberg, Georgina Del Vecho, Mark Winne Pete Pearson, Katherine Walla, Sarah Axe, Rennie Jordan, Maddie Seibert, Lexi Kassler, Lettie Straton, Brian Frederick, Emily Nink, and Emma Orlow. "10 Facts You Might Not Know About Food Waste." Food Tank. November 13, 2016. https://foodtank.com/news/2015/06/world-environment-day-10-facts-about-foodwaste-from-bcfn/. CSR. "Food Wastage In India A Serious Concern." The CSR Journal April 08, 2017. https://thecsrjournal.in/food-wastage-in-india-a-serious-concern/.