Title: Food waste from grocery stores in Umeå- the potential for taking care of and reducing the amount of food waste. Author: Helene Myhrberg Abstract Food waste from grocery stores is an increasing problem in Sweden, and amounts to roughly 67 000 ton per year. This has consequences both for sustainability in general, but also for achieving the targets stipulated by the EU. Given this, it should be relevant for the society that grocery stores both decrease the amount of food waste but also develop better ways of dealing with food waste. Although there exist methods for this, the practicability of such measures are unknown. In this thesis I assess these issues by conducting interviews with owners and employees at five grocery stores in Umeå, asking them how they think about these questions. In particular, I focus on how to take care of and prepare food waste for anaerobic digestion and how to decrease volumes of food waste. In essence, I find that both the knowledge of, and interest in, these issues vary substantially between grocery stores. Further, for these measures to be feasible, it requires the process to be both economically efficient while not requiring too much time of work. With this in mind, it seems necessary to have a facility that can take care of both packed and unpackaged food waste, making it as cheap and simple as possible for the grocery stores. For reducing volumes of waste, most grocery stores agrees on better planning as the way to go. Key words: food waste, grocery stores, anaerobic digestion, decreasing of food waste.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund Hushållen står idag för den största mängden matsvinn och andelen livsmedelsinköp online ökar för varje år. En stor del av konsumenternas livsmedelsinköp online är matkassar bestående av färdiga middagslösningar med recept och tillhörande livsmedel. Konceptet är effektivt då konsumenten kan ägna tid åt annat än planering av veckans middagar, men hur effektivt det är i ett matsvinns-perspektiv är dock outforskat. Syfte Syftet med studien var att undersöka matsvinn hos konsumenter som handlade eller har handlat färdigplanerade matkassar online. Om det uppstod matsvinn, vilka livsmedel slängdes och vilka orsaker låg bakom detta?  Metod Kvantitativ metod tillämpades där data samlades in med hjälp av en webbenkät som distribuerades via en ICA-butik i Umeå till deras kunder som handlade eller har handlat matkassar online, samt genom Facebook och olika forum på internet.  Resultat Totalt besvarade 126 personer enkäten och majoriteten av deltagarna slängde livsmedel vid var femte recept eller färre gånger och vegetabilier slängdes i störst utsträckning. De som köpte Familjekassen visade sig orsaka matsvinn mer frekvent (p=0,025), samt mer färsk fisk/kött (p=0,032) och vegetariska produkter (p=0,032) än de som köpte övriga matkassar. Svaren visade stor variation på frågan om respondenten ansåg sig orsaka mer matsvinn vid köp av färdiga matkassar till skillnad från om de handlade i fysisk butik. Slutsats Majoriteten av respondenterna i denna studie orsakade små mängder matsvinn vid köp av färdiga matkassar och orsakerna till svinn visade sig vara många och varierande. Att recepten inte var tilltalande nog och att maten inte smakade bra var två vanliga orsaker till matsvinn vilket kunde tolkas som att matkassarna inte var optimerade ur ett matsvinnsperspektiv. Att handla Familjekassen visade sig vara signifikativt med ökat matsvinn. / Abstract Background Households produce the biggest amount of food waste and the amount of groceries being bought online increases by every year. A big part of these purchases are pre-planned grocery bags with recipes and associated ingredients, which is an effective concept based on a time-saving perspective. This area was largely unexplored and it is not known how effective it is through a food waste-perspective.  Objective The aim with this study was to examine food waste among consumers who bought pre-planned grocery bags online. If there was any food waste, which groceries were thrown and by what reasons? Method A quantitative method has been used where data was collected through an online survey. It was distributed by an ICA-store in Umeå to their customers who bought pre-planned grocery bags, but also on Facebook and different forums on the internet. ResultsA total of 126 respondents participated in the survey and the majority discarded food by every fifth or fewer times and vegetables was discarded the most. Those who bought Family bag were shown to cause food waste more frequently (p=0,025), more fish/meat (p=0,032) and vegetarian products (p=0,032) than those who bought other grocery bags. The results showed large variation regarding the question if the respondents perceived wasting more food when purchasing pre-planned grocery bags online, compared to when they bought groceries in a physical store. Conclusion The majority of the respondents in this study caused a small amount of food waste when purchasing pre-planned grocery bags and the reasons to food waste were shown to be many with great variation. Two common reasons to food waste were that the recipes weren’t appealing and food didn’t taste good enough. This can be interpreted that the grocery bags weren’t optimized in a food waste perspective. To purchase Family bag were shown to be significative with increased food waste.

Background: The background to the study is found in the recent development of applying circularity on traditional processes to support sustainability and reduce food waste. Especially the saturated food industry is in need of innovation (Cooper, 2011) and it is seen as beneficial to foster eco-innovation through collaboration with others, in particular between small and large enterprises rather than them doing it alone (Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010). These networks however are complex and eventually require special attention. Research question: How do representatives of small enterprises and a global operating company view challenges in collaborating on sustainability driven projects? Aim: Gaining insight on how an established company with environmental conscious agenda collaborates with sustainable idea providers that have sustainability at the core of their operations. Method: This thesis is conducted with a qualitative case study using abductive reasoning given its exploratory style of execution. The empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews. As epistemological direction social constructionism is chosen, which puts into focus that social interactions between social actors create shared meaning and realities. Conclusion: It is identified how the case company’s collaborations with different stakeholders are impacted by challenges related to industry impact, process mobility and the ability to scale. Especially of importance is the selection of partners regarding shared sustainable values prior to start. After all, the mentioned challenges are eventually not seen as challenges but still are seen as important to achieve sustainable innovations that impact the company’s food handling.

Composting is a sustainable method to deal with huge amount of daily organic waste due to its robustness and easy operation. However, food waste (FW) as the main material in composting has disadvantages such as the heterogenous properties, high foreign matters contamination, high moisture content, low C/N ratio, poor structure, low porosity and high acidity during the initial phase of composting. These shortcomings not only influence degradation efficiency but also cease the composting process. Therefore, a bulking agent is required to increase the porosity and adjust the moisture content as well as C/N ratio of the composting mixture (Wong et al., 2010). For previous research, sawdust (SD) and tree barks were commonly used as the bulking agent in composting system but the demand for sawdust and tree barks significantly increased the cost of the composting process, and this has stimulated the demand of alternative substitutes. Therefore, the ideal situation is to find the bulking agent which is not only suitable for composting but is also a waste. Traditional Chinese medicine is widely used nowadays and huge amount of residues are accumulated and treated in landfilling (Wang and Li, 2013). According to previous research, only 5% of the active ingredients can be extracted from the medicinal plants which means there are still a large fraction of active ingredients remain in the herbal residues (Wu et al., 2013). In addition to the bulking property of Chinese medicinal herbal residues (CMHRs), it is assumed mature CMHRs compost have the ability to hinder regular metabolic pathway of phytopathogens after land application (Bernal-Vicente et al., 2008). The first experiment of this study investigated the formula between food waste, sawdust and CMHRs in order to achieve efficient composting. The experimental results demonstrated positively the use of CHMRs is a suitable candidate to co-compost with food waste. In terms of biodegradation decomposition efficiency and compost maturity, the treatment 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis) showed the best performance among all treatments with 67% organic matter degradation and 157% seed germination index. Only well-matured composting product can suppress plant diseases in soil since it has some microorganisms which can inhibit phytopathogens. The treatment 5:5:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis) also reached maturity but with a longer composting period; however, it was the treatment which could accommodate the highest quantity of food waste. The log copy number of the bacterial population was 7-8 initially, which decreased and stabilized along the composting. Results revealed that the CHMRs can be used as a bulking agent with food waste, and a dry weight ratio of 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs) would be optimum to achieve higher organic decomposition and faster maturity. However, the initial lower microbial population in the treatment, though without any adverse effect on the overall microbial decomposition, will warrant further work to indicate the total population is not a practical means to illuminate the effective microbial decomposition. Besides, the advantage in using CHMRs will need further experiment to indicate its potential pathogen suppression capability. Humification during co-composting of food waste, sawdust and CMHRs was investigated to reveal its correlation with compost maturity. The huge decrease in the treatment 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis) of aliphatic organics in humic acids (HA) demonstrated the degradation of the readily available organics, while an increase in aromatic functional groups indicated the maturity of compost. Disappearance of hemicellulose and weak intensity of lignin in the CMHRs treatments indicated that the lignin provided the nucleus for HA formation; and the CMHRs accelerated the compost maturity. Humic acid to fulvic acid (HA/FA) ratio of 1:1:1 treatment was the highest at the end of composting and showed a clear correlation with compost maturity as also evidenced through the presence of higher aromatic functional groups in the HA fraction. Pyr-TMAH-GC-MS results indicated that dominant groups were aliphatic and alicyclic esters and ethers at the early composting stages in all treatments. Long chain fatty acids were broken down into smaller molecular compounds earlier in treatment 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis), resulting from the faster decomposition rate. The complicated ring-structure components appeared dominantly at the later phase of composting. The peak intensities in treatment 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis) indicated that the composts became mature earlier than the other two treatments. In brief, the treatment with dry weight ratio 1:1:1 had greatest humification degree with more cyclic structures and stable final products at the end of composting. Water and acetone extract of composts with food waste and CMHRs were tested with their antipathogenic effect on two kinds of commonly found phytopathogens, Alternaria solani (A. solani) and Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum). Seventeen bacterial species and 22 fungal species were isolated and identified as prevalently existed microbes during composting process. The results of MIC50 indicated that the treatment with dry weight ratio 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis) required least concentration of composts extraction to kill half quantity of the phytopathogens, 16% for A. solani and 22% for F. oxysporum extracted by acetone. The phytopathogen suppression capacity of composts was partially due to antagonistic abilities from some of the isolated microorganisms as well as the inhibition of active compounds. As shown in the comparison, the interfere/compete between antagonistic microorganisms and target pathogens were more powerful than individually influenced by chemical compounds. However, the influencing factors should not be considered independently since antagonistic interactions between microbes in composts and phytopathogens are highly dependent on the abiotic properties of the composts and the alternative environment. In a word, the antipathogenic effects from composts were synergism of both antagonism and chemical factors. Suppressive capacity on phytopathogens is one of the major function of mature composts and the antipathogenic effect was stimulated when CMHRs was used as the bulking agent in composting process. The abiotic inhibitory rates of treatment 1:1:1 (FW: SD: CHMRs, dry wt. basis) indicated that more powerful bioactive components were remained at the end of composting than in the treatment 5:5:1 and control which had no CMHRs but plastic beads as the bulking agent. Hence sensitive and comprehensive analytical technique of ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) was utilized to acquire a better understanding of the complicated structures of final composting products. Seven dominant among 22 active compounds with antibacterial/antifungal properties were obtained in the treatments with CMHRs while 17 kinds of compounds with higher contents were shared in all treatments, which should be derived from food waste. The bioactive components from CMHRs composting were mainly from the groups of alkaloids, flavonoids and coumarins. Mature composts were used as biofertilizer to protect plants (Brassica chinensis and Lycopersicon esculentum) from phytopathogenic infection. This study showed the crop yields were increased with the addition of mature CMHRs composts to acid soil, and 5% CMHRs compost was the optimum application rate, while at the higher application rate of 10% (dry weight basis, w/w) plant growth was inhibited which might be due to the higher salt contents and the phytotoxicity of alkaloids, flavonoids and coumarins in the CMHRs. According to the biomass results, Brassica chinensis was more sensitive to the inhibitory effect of phytopathogen inoculation, while nutrient supply was to a less extent due to the short growth period as compared to Lycopersicon esculentum. The present study showed clearly that mature compost provided Lycopersicon esculentum and Brassica chinensis sufficient nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Additionally, the advantage of using mature CMHRs compost as a soil conditioner was also observed for blocking phytopathogenic infection from plant roots. The mechanism was mainly derived from the bioactive components in mature CMHRs compost which inhibited phytopathogenic activities in soil. Many identified compounds were alkaloids, flavonoids and coumarins which have powerful antifungal and antibacterial abilities and most of them maintained during growth period though their amounts reduced greatly due to their photolytic and pyrolytic properties. Therefore, mature CMHRs compost can be the substitute to reduce the usage of fungicides and its associated environmental hazards. The present study demonstrates clearly the beneficial effects of using CMHRs as a bulking agent to co-compost with food waste with the additional phytopathogens suppression property. Therefore, it is concluded that Chinese medicinal herbal residues can be a good choice of bulking agent in food waste composting system. Organic matter degradation and humification process were accelerated by CMHRs addition and mature CMHRs compost had antipathogenic effect and protect plants from infection

Food waste accounts for about 1/3 of the municipal waste generated in Hong Kong. Using food waste as major ingredients to produce fish feed pellets could ease part of the disposal pressure on the existing landfill sites. The present study focused on the use of food wastes and feed supplements (prebiotic fibres and Chinese herbs) for rearing freshwater fish (grass carp, bighead, mud carp and Nile tilapia) in Hong Kong. Two isonitrogenous formulations, Food Waste Diet A (FWA), consisted of 53% cereal, 10% fruit and vegetables, 8% bone meal, 4% other food waste, 10% fishmeal, 15% corn meal and Food Waste Diet B (FWB), consisted of 25% meat, 28% cereal, 10% fruit and vegetables, 8% bone meal, 4% other food waste, 10% fishmeal, 15% corn meal were manufactured by Kowloon Biotechnology Ltd, were used as feeds for rearing grass carp, bighead, mud carp and Nile tilapia. The essential amino acid profiles and proximate compositions (crude protein, crude lipid and total phosphorous) of the two food waste based feed pellets were compared with other common feed items, including Napier grass, rice bran, breads, noodles, soybean dreg (remains of soybean after juicing for soybean milk) and the commercial feed pellets (Jiefeng® 613). Jiefeng® 613, FWA and FWB possessed 5.83%, 5.76% 5.79% (% protein) of lysine, which could satisfy the dietary requirements of both grass carp and Nile tilapia. Results indicated all the fish feed pellets possessed sufficient essential amino acids and suitable proximate compositions (crude lipid, crude protein, crude fibre and non-fibrous carbohydrate) for both grass carp and Nile tilapia. A field trial was conducted using the three feed pellets (Jiefeng® 613, FWA and FWB) to study their effects on fish growth (grass carp, bighead and mud carp) as well as water quality. FWA that possessing a higher P content (2770 μg/g feed, while control= 967 μg/g feed and FWB= 1942 μg/g feed) favoured the growth of plankton and led to better growth of bighead carp (in terms of length gain, wet weight gain and productivity), while grass carp fed with FWB showed significant better growth (in terms of length gain, wet weight gain, productivity, feed conversion ratio, specific growth rate and protein efficiency ratio), probably due to the relatively lower amount of carbohydrate (24.2%) and CHO:L ratio (1.83) than Control and FWA. Mud carp grew equally well in ponds fed with the three diets. FWB was subsequentially selected for further feeding experiments. A laboratory feeding trial was conducted to study the effects of feeding grass carp and Nile tilapia with FWB on their growth performance in terms of relative weight gain (RWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER), and protein digestibility. Both fish fed with FWB showed similar growth performances to groups fed with control diet (Jiefeng® 613), while grass carp showed impaired protein digestibility when compared to group fed with control diet. FWB supplemented with 0.3% of vitamin-mineral premix (VMP) significantly improved the growth performance of both fish species and protein digestibility for grass carp. Results suggested that FWB incorporation with VMP would be necessary as it significantly enhanced growth of the fish. Four dietary supplements (inulin, mannan-oligosacharride, huangqi and goji, at the rates of 0.2% or 2%, w/w) were incorporated into FWB for further enhancing fish growth as well as non-specific immunity of grass carp and Nile tilapia. Grass carp fed with 0.2% and 2% inulin, 2% MOS and 0.2% goji, and Nile tilapia fed with 0.2% goji had significantly enhanced growth (RWG, FCR, SGR and PER). Both prebiotic fibres and Chinese herbs boosted the tested non-specific immune parameters (total serum immunoglobin, serum bactericidal activity and anti-protease activity) of both species. Among all the dietary supplements, 0.2% goji appeared to be the best supplement for both grass carp and Nile tilapia as it significantly enhanced the growth among all experimental diets. Grass carp and Nile tilapia fed with 0.2% showed about 10% and 30% higher RWG, 10% and 30% lower FCR value, respectively, than groups fed with other experimental diets. Moreover, all the tested non-specific immune parameters (total serum immunoglobin, serum bactericidal activity and anti-protease activity) were significantly enhanced when compared with the groups fed with control diets (Control and FWB without supplementation) . The present study demonstrated the feasibilities of using food wastes incorporated with feed supplements (prebiotic fibres and Chinese herbs) to enhance fish growth and immunity, for the sustainable development of Hong Kong inland aquaculture.

Composting is considered as an effective and sustainable food waste treatment technology from the perspectives of volume reduction, stabilization and releasing the pressure on landfills. Community composter is a decentralized composting facility in fed-batch operational mode which is usually being installed in the backyard of institutes, hospitals, housing estate etc. to handle the food wastes generated daily. Albeit numerous operational issues including high initial acidity and oil content, poor decomposition and odor generation are commonly encountered in these facilities, which make it difficult to be accepted by the public. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to develop a composting mix formulation that can provide a solution to all these issues in a fed-batch food waste composting process. The first phase of this study aims at finding out an optimized formulation in a batch-scale food waste composting process through the use of alkaline amendments and microbial inoculum. For the first two experiments, artificial food wastes were prepared by mixing 1.3kg bread, 1kg boiled rice, 1kg cabbage, 0.5kg fully boiled pork and mixed with sawdust to obtain a C/N of 30 and adjusted moisture of the mixtures to 55%. The effect of different concentrations of zeolite compared to lime was studied in the first experiment. Zeolite was amended with food wastes and sawdust mixtures at 2% (ZI-2), 5% (ZI-5), 10% (ZI-10) to compare with lime in 2.25% (L-2.25) w/w (dry weight basis) and composted for 56 days. Results demonstrated that 10% of zeolite was optimal amendment rate compared to lower dosage of zeolite (2% & 5%) with stronger pH buffering capacity and greater decomposition efficiency. Addition of 2.25% of lime buffered the pH efficiently but increased the ammonia loss significantly which eventually reduced total nitrogen (TN) content of final product and posed odor emission problem. Amendment of 10% zeolite provided a higher adsorption affinity on ammonia resulting in 2.05% of TN value of final product which was higher than 1.72% of lime treatment. Furthermore, significantly higher seed germination 150% was achieved of ZI-10 compost compared to 135% of L-2.25 due to low ammonium content of product. The first experiment showed that application of less than 10% zeolite was not sufficient to buffer the acidity; as a result, organic matter decomposition was inhibited. However, the cost and reduction in treatment percentage of food waste in 10% application rate of zeolite is an issue of concern. To tackle this dilemma, food waste was amended with struvite salts at 1:2 molar ratio of MgO and K2HPO4 (Mg:P) with or without zeolite amended at either 5% or 10% amendment (Mg:P, Z5 + Mg:P & Z10 + Mg:P) and a control treatment with food waste only was also included. Results showed that treatment of Z10 + Mg:P was synergistically achieved of pH and EC buffering, and N conservation but not for the case of 5 % zeolite. Treatment of Z10 + Mg:P further reduced the N loss to 18% compared to 25% and 27% of Mg:P and Z5 + Mg:P respectively. However, there was insignificant difference in the final nitrogen content and decomposition rate among all treatments with struvite salts amendment. Comparing to the treatment of Z-10 of the first experiment to Z10 + Mg:P of the second experiment, Z-10 showed superior performance since better decomposition efficiency, shorter time to require to pass the GI (28 Days) and lower cost because of salts exclusion. To develop a multipurpose formulation for the fed-batch operational food waste composter, high lipids problem in food waste cannot be neglected because it is a critical factor to hinder the decomposition efficiency. Inoculation of oil degradative microorganisms was reported as an effective approach to facilitate the lipids. Therefore, the third experiment was to investigate the overall composting performance supplemented with 10% zeolite and microbial consortium. 10% zeolite with bacterial consortium significantly reduced the lipid contents from 7% to 1% compared to control treatments. Furthermore, treatments amended with 10% zeolite was proved to reduce ammonia emission and total volatile fatty acids level in the composting mass, therefore the total odor emission level can be reduced. Zeolite at 10% was found to be a suitable optimum additive for both synthetic and real-food wastes. Therefore, treatment of 10% zeolite with bacterial consortium is selected as an optimized formulation for further study of its application in a fed-batch composter. Following the food waste zeolite composting formulation obtained in Phase I, the aim of Phase II was to develop an ideal composting mix formulation for on-site commercial composters. Although the results have been demonstrated 10% zeolite with bacterial consortium facilitated the composting efficiency in batch composter, those amendments may be over-estimated if applied in a fed batch composter by using real food wastes. With this constraint, the applicability of these additives in commercial fed-batch composter needs to be assessed using locally generated food wastes. Treatments included food waste and sawdust mixtures at 4:1 mixing ratio (wet weight basis) were mixed with 2.25% of lime (L2.25), 10% of zeolite (Z10) and 10% zeolite with bacterial inoculum (Z10+O) and a control of food waste with sawdust mixture only was also included. 35 kg compost mixture was fed into each composter respectively daily for a period of 42 days. Only Z10+O was the most suitable composting mix for fed-batch food waste composting process with continuous sustained high temperature (55-60oC), optimal moisture (55%-60%), alkaline pH and low EC during the experimental period. Bacterial inoculum significantly improved the lipids decomposition from 22.16% (C) to 3.10% (Z10+O) after the composting period. In contrast, lime and zeolite alone treatments could not maintain the optimal pH that led to reduce degradation and longer stabilization period. Only compost taken from Z10+O treatment could be classified as mature compost. The aim of the third study phase was to examine an optimal application rate of food waste compost produced from decentralized food waste composter for plant. A plant growth experiment was conducted in this phase to evaluate the change in soil properties and plant growth of Brassica chinensis and Lycopersicon esculentum. The experiment was conducted in a loamy soil amended with 0%, 2.5%, 5% and 10% food waste compost amendment rate compared to the control soil with chemical fertilizer amendment only. Results indicated that 5% was the optimal application rate of food waste compost for both crops among all treatments which can be evidenced by the highest biomass production and nutrients value of the plant tissues. Plant available nutrients such as NH4+, NO3-, PO43- were proportionally increased with increase in compost application rate. However, 2.5% of the food waste compost did not provide sufficient nutrients for plant growth and 10% showed negative effects due to increased salts content. Plants amended with chemical fertilizer had relatively low biomass production compared to compost amended treatments due to soil compaction and fast leaching of nutrients. It can be concluded that application of 10% zeolite with microbial consortium is an ideal composting mix formulation for on-site commercial composters and 5% is an optimal application rate of food waste compost of Brassica chinensis and Lycopersicon esculentum

O método DMAIC do programa de qualidade Seis Sigma reúne um conjunto de métodos e ferramentas estatísticas para o estudo da variabilidade dos processos. Uma vez identificados e estudados os pontos de oportunidade, faz-se o planejamento e a implantação de melhorias, em geral, com significativos benefícios para os resultados da organização. O processo de produção de refeições também pode ser estudado sob esta ótica, isto é, a redução da variabilidade nos processos pode contribuir como uma estratégia para a melhoria da qualidade e redução dos custos. O objetivo desta dissertação é o de utilizar conceitos da filosofia Seis Sigma para realizar um estudo das oportunidades de melhoria em um restaurante universitário e fazer sugestões de ações que tragam benefícios financeiros e melhorem seus processos. Além da pesquisa bibliográfica sobre o método DMAIC e administração de Unidades de Alimentação e Nutrição (UAN), foi realizado um projeto no Restaurante Central do Campus da USP de Ribeirão Preto, com o objetivo de reduzir o desperdício de alimentos. Foram coletados dados sobre a aceitação das refeições pelos usuários no refeitório do restaurante central, onde os usuários servem-se em bandejas, e no refeitório II, onde os usuários servem-se em pratos, além do levantamento dos restos em cada refeitório. A análise dos dados sugere que a utilização de pratos ao invés de bandejas pode reduzir o desperdício de alimentos e até aumentar a aceitação dos alimentos pelos usuários, atendendo a dois requisitos importantes do programa de qualidade Seis Sigma: o foco no cliente e o impacto financeiro. / The DMAIC method from the SIX SIGMA quality program assembles a set of methods and statistics tools for the variability process study. Once the opportunities are identified and studied, the improvements are planned and established, in general, with significant benefit for the entity result. The meal production process can also be studied from this perspective, that is, decreasing process variability can contribute as a strategy for the improvement of quality and cost reduction. The purpose of this thesis is to apply concept from the Six Sigma philosophy to perform a study on the improvement opportunities in a university cafeteria and suggest actions that results in financial benefits and process enhancement. Besides bibliographic research about the DMAIC method and UAN (Unidades de Alimentação e Nutrição) management process, a project was performed at the main cafeteria of the USPRibeirão Preto campus, with the purpose to reduce food waste. Meal acceptance data were collected from customers at both, the main cafeteria, where the meal is served in a tray, and from the cafeteria II, where the meal is served in a plate, and a survey of the leftover in each site were also performed. The analysis suggests that using plates instead of trays can reduce food waste and even increase the customer\'s acceptance of the food, fulfilling two important requirements of the Six Sigma quality program: focus on the customer and financial impact.

Os resíduos orgânicos alimentares são um tipo de resíduo de difícil aproveitamento. Milhões de toneladas de lixo orgânico são descartados todos os anos, sobretudo os de origem alimentar, sendo que boa parte não é reaproveitada. Tradicionalmente, quando reaproveitados, esses resíduos são destinados à compostagem. No entanto, para que esse processo seja bemsucedido, é necessário que os resíduos sejam separados corretamente a fim de que a qualidade do produto final seja aceitável para o uso como fertilizante. Uma alternativa proposta de utilização dos resíduos alimentares consiste na produção de material carbonáceo obtido pela carbonização ou torrefação destes. Avaliam-se as propriedades e as características qualitativas e quantitativas desses materiais carbonáceos e seus derivados, como a composição, a resistência mecânica e a microestrutura. Tenciona-se, desse modo, contribuir para o conhecimento das possíveis aplicações desses carvões, materiais carbonosos e derivados em diversas áreas da indústria, inclusive na siderúrgica. / Millions of tons of organic waste are discarded every year, especially from food sources, and most of it is not reused. Traditionally, when reused, this kind of waste is destined for composting. However, for that procedure to be successful it is necessary that the waste is properly separated so that the quality of the final product is acceptable for fertilizer. An alternative reuse of food waste constitutes obtaining carbonaceous material by carbonization or torrefaction of this material. This work studies the charcoalmaking that uses these kind of residues, the characteristics of charcoals obtained, and the possible applications for these carbonaceous materials. The properties and the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of this object of study, such as its composition, its mechanical resistance and its microstructure, are evaluated. It is intended to contribute to the knowledge of the possible applications of these charcoals in several areas of industry, including in the steel industry.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / This project strives to discover the most efficient way in which we can connect the edible food that would be sent to rot in a landfill with the people who lack access to adequate and healthful food. Existing charitable food distribution programs will be assessed so as to determine how to create a food distribution event that is far-reaching, well attended and effective. This research will be translated into a comprehensive plan outlining best practices for carrying out a distribution event on a college campus.

No description available.