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Considering that the restaurant and food service industry is responsible for generating three million tons of food waste every year, the study, conducted by Unilever Food Solutions, illustrates a growing global concern.

Last year, the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), found that UK restaurants wasted 600,000 tons of food a year as a result of careless kitchen habits and super-sized restaurant portions. Similarly, state studies out of the US claim that six million tons of food products were dumped annually.

Garth Shnier, executive chef & F&B manager of Sandton Sun, Inter-Continental Sandton Towers and Sandton Convention Centre Kitchen, said chefs had a responsibility to minimise food waste and to use only what they needed to.

"We should avoid creating a demand for dishes that use out-of-season ingredients and challenge our creativity around menu planning to use ingredients efficiently, use different cooking methods to use every part of every product, control portions and reduce leftovers," he said.

The Unilever report found that 80% of those questioned in Western countries expressed concern about food waste when eating out-of-home while 87% of respondents in non-Western countries echoed this concern. In addition, 74% of those surveyed in Western countries said that it was important to be informed of how this food waste is being disposed of.

According to Sergio Perelman, global director of packaging and sustainability at Unilever Food Solutions, the findings of the report demonstrated that the spotlight on food waste was extending from in-home to out-of-home.

"Earlier research has shown that a high proportion of food wasted in professional kitchens is generated at the preparation stage, so we have a role to play in helping our chefs and operators to reduce these waste levels," he said.

In Turkey, Unilever Food Solutions has been helping to reduce food and energy waste when preparing stocks and soups by providing certain customers with pre-prepared Knorr bouillons. And in Sweden it developed a tool which allows schoolchildren to see just how much waste they create by leaving food on the plate - this has already led to a 30% reduction in food waste.

Furthermore, Unilever has taken a significant step towards helping chefs and operators reduce the amount of food waste by creating 'United Against Waste' coalitions across 74 countries worldwide, including SA.

"Small, incremental steps can result in big differences  - as an industry, we need to look at stock management, menu flexibility, portion sizes," said Eelco Camminga, vice president of Unilever Food Solutions for Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan.