All you can eat or all you can waste? Effects of alternate serving styles and inducements on food waste in buffet restaurants

Consumer plate waste is a pressing environmental concern. Scholars hypothesize that moral and financial inducements have the potential to reduce food waste at the end of the meal. This study addresses this hypothesis for buffet restaurants, a popular dining option in Asia. ‘All-you-can-eat' consumption leads to higher volumes of food waste at the end of the meal, as the leftovers may not be taken away. This study is the first attempt to examine the effect of the combination of serving styles (self-service buffet bar vs. rolling cart) and inducements (both moral and financial) on food waste, employing a field experiment method. Bulk food waste was recorded for a total of 630 participants. The results provide evidence that there is a significant interaction between serving styles and inducements on food waste volume (Study 1 and Study 2). Specifically, the results indicate that buffet self-service combined with moral persuasion and a discount produces the least food waste (Study 3). Restaurants can employ a variety of methods to address the problem of plate waste by their customers, including serving styles, moral persuasion, and financial inducements in the form of discounts as a reward for eating all that one takes at the buffet bar.