The paper entitled “Food Waste Reduction Strategy in The Food Service Sector in Jakarta with Causal Loop Analysis” was the result of a research student at the Industrial Engineering Department (DTI) Masters Program, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia (FTUI), Yohanes Elia Purwanto, together with DTI FTUI lecturer, Dr.rer .pol. Romadhani Ardi, S.T., M.T., won the title of Best Paper in the 2023 International Conference on Multidisciplinary and Current Educational Research (ICMCER), which was held by the Institute for Engineering Research and Publication (IFERP) in Bangkok, Thailand, on 11–12 April 2023. This research offers a solution to the problem of food waste, especially for the food service sector in Jakarta.
This paper describes how waste generation in the food service sector in DKI Jakarta creates problems. Based on research conducted by the Ministry of National Development Planning in 2021, most food waste is generated at the consumption stage which consists of two actors, namely food services and households. “Meanwhile, our research focuses on food waste generation in Jakarta by using a causal circle analysis to provide an understanding of the flow of food waste generation and the relationships between the variables that influence it,” said Dr. Romadhani.
According to Yohanes, food waste generation cannot be eliminated, but the amount can be reduced. The solution to dealing with this food waste is to pay attention to the interests of various stakeholders so that the impact can be felt together.
“We propose three strategic scenarios that are expected to significantly reduce food waste generation. First, an awareness campaign for food waste. With this campaign, it is hoped that public awareness will increase and the community will be encouraged to participate in the food waste reduction program. Second, food donations. This can be an action to reduce the amount of food waste. Third, selling leftover food at discounted prices, the aim is so that food that is not consumed does not end up as waste,” said Yohanes.
Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU expressed his appreciation for this achievement. According to him, the strategic proposals given by Yohanes and Dr. Romadhani are a form of solution to the problem of food waste which can become a big problem and pollute the environment. “It is hoped that these three strategies can be implemented so that the problem of generating food waste can be effectively overcome so that the impact of hazardous waste on the surrounding environment can be avoided,” said Prof. Harry.
John and Dr. Romadhani took part in the ICMCER event which is an international conference for academics and professionals involved in multidisciplinary research to present their research findings. The papers that have been presented will be published in the form of Scopus-indexed proceedings. In holding the fourth ICMCER, there were 44 papers, whose participants came from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Bangladesh and the UAE.
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Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia