Does Plate Waste Matter? : A two-stage cluster survey to assess the household plate waste in the Philippines

Background: Plate waste is an urgent global research problem. Gaining better knowledge of the quantity and patterns of plate waste among households may give critical insights into resolving the greater problem of unnecessary plate waste. The study was conducted to determine the amount of plate wastage across food security levels of households and evaluate possible factors associated with plate waste. Methods This investigation analyzed the data from the 2018 Expanded National Nutrition Survey. Food weighing, food inventory, and food recall were the methods used to collect household food consumption and plate waste. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale was used to identify levels of food security among households. Results The present study has revealed that rice-vegetables-fish/meat, or a combination of the two was the usual meal pattern observed among households. Rice, vegetables, and meat were the top 3 most wasted foods among Filipino households. Food secure households wasted more rice, fats and oils, cereals, fish, as well as maize and corn products than food insecure households. Too much meal portion size, greater number of household members and wealth increases the likelihood of rice, vegetable, and meat wastage. Conclusions These findings suggest that plate waste is a health policy issue as households are routinely purchasing large amounts of nutritious produce that they are not consuming; and hence, increasing the need for interventions aimed at reducing plate waste among households.