Food losses in food service institutions:

"Food losses in food service institutions: Examples from Sweden", Rebecka Engstrom and Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Food Policy, Volume 29, Issue 3, Pages 203-294 (June 2004).

The authors studied food losses in four food service institutions in Stockholm, Sweden. The results show that about one-fifth of the food produced is lost. Plate waste is the single largest source of loss, at 11-13% of the amount of food served. Losses in food service institutions can be of significant economic value, and arable land equivalent to 1.5% of the area under cultivation in Sweden may be used to produce food eventually lost in food service institutions. The results indicate that the economic and environmental consequences of current levels of food losses may be substantial.

This figure is comparable to the figure calculated by Rebecca White for domestic food waste. See "Reductions in the energy intensity of the UK food chain: where should they be made, and would consumers support them?" Rebecca White, 3 September 2004, Environmental Change and Management, University of Oxford, Masters Dissertation.Examples from Sweden, Rebecka Engstrom and Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Food Policy, Volume 29, Issue 3, Pages 203-294 (June 2004).