Determinant Factors of Hospital Food Waste in Surgical and Medical Wards at the Teaching Hospital, Kuliyapitiya

Abstract

Food waste is a global health issue challenging sustainable development. The Ministry of Health has reported that the monthly wasted food amount in Teaching Hospital Kuliyapiti ya as six thousand kilograms per month and 30% of that food is provided by the hospital. Hospital food waste has significant social, economic, and nutritional impacts. This study aimed to determine the factors affecting g hospital-supplied food waste among in-patients of medical and surgical wards at Teaching Hospital Kuliyapiti ya (THK). This was a quanti tati ve descripti ve study. The patients of age in between 20 to 60 years admitted to medical and surgical wards at THK who were having hospital diet as the meal, was selected as the sample for this study. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive stati sti cs were computed to analyse data using SPSS version 23. The results showed that 48.5% of the participants were dissatisfied with Lunch and 57.8% of the participants were dissatisfied with chewing status of the food. The findings of the study concluded that the most common factors for hospital food waste as; timing of dinner serving, courtesy of the staff who serve food, dissatisfaction with the dining places, poor venti lati on of dining places and the dissati sfacti on of the hygienic condition of serving food. Moreover, inappropriate temperature of serving food and dissatisfied taste of the food were also reported as the most common factors for food waste.