Sustainability practices in meal production units in the state of Sergipe

Abstract

Sustainability emerges as a current and important issue in restaurants, including for the nutritionist, in conducting actions that contribute to the environment and society. Restaurants are responsible for the production of balanced meals from the nutritional point of view and with appropriate hygienic-sanitary standards for consumption outside the home. They are places that generate large amounts of waste and, therefore, it is essential to make decisions that preserve natural resources and minimize the impacts generated to the sustainability of this sector, without changing the quality and safety of food. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sustainability practices in all stages of the production of meals in restaurants in the state of Sergipe. This is a descriptive study, based on the application of a questionnaire prepared by Tasca (2020), applied electronically with the nutritionists of the restaurants. The data were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics. Twenty-two restaurants in the state of Sergipe were evaluated, in which 77.3% of the menus are prepared by the nutritionist, half have and use technical sheets, 81.8% include seasonal products, 95.5% regional foods, 90.9% use processed foods, and 86.4% have equipment and utensils to reduce food waste. In 68.2% of the companies, preparations made with deep frying are avoided and, when oil is used, it is destined to recycling. 63.6% informed that they control the clean leftovers, 45.5% the dirty leftovers, 31.8% do not monitor the leftovers and 50% do not control the rest-ingestion. As for waste, 63.6% do not separate organic waste and 54.5% do not separate recyclable waste. From the evaluation of sustainable practices adopted by the restaurants in question, it can be concluded that the management of these establishments, although incipiently, presents environmental awareness, because some attitudes have already been adopted. The implementation of sustainability actions in restaurants requires that the nutritionist and responsible managers get involved, encourage and support the implementation and development of these behaviors, which can have a positive impact, making sustainability an important management strategy from the economic, environmental and social point of view.