85 



provided " that was disposed of in the dining room, inchiding both 

 the amounts of food which were actual]}^ eaten and those which were 

 wasted. The total quantity thus designated is therefore equal to the 

 difference between that provided and that returned. As a matter of 

 fact, there is an inaccuracy in the account of "food served" which, 

 though of minor importance, should be mentioned, namely, that part 

 of what is designated as "food wasted," and accordingly enters into 

 the account of food served, had never been served and should have 

 been returned to tiie kitchen. 



In gathering the data regarding food wasted at the end of each meal 

 the different kinds of food in the rejected material were separated and 

 the quantity of each was determined. In most cases the larger part 

 of this material consisted of what was left upon the plates, but to some 

 extent it comprised also food that had not been served; because, as 

 mentioned above, when the amount of food left in the serving dishes 

 was not large it was frequently added to what was left upon the plates 

 instead of being returned to the kitchen for future use, and indeed in 

 some cases all of such "left-over" material, except meat and potatoes, 

 was thus disposed of. Inasmuch as under the circumstances it was 

 impracticable to have such material kept separate from material act- 

 ually left upon the plates, it was necessary to -record the whole as 

 "food wasted." It would seem therefore more appropriate to con- 

 sider the whole as " dining-room" rather than as " table" waste. 



The amount of food wasted in the dining room in some of the stud- 

 ies was relatively small, while in others it formed a considerable pro- 

 portion of the total food provided, the range being from 5 per cent in 

 study No. 385 with patients, to 41 per cent in study No. 369 with 

 employees. In 16 of the studies the proportion was above 15 per cent, 

 in one it was 14 per cent, and in the remainder it was between 5 and 

 12 per cent. On an average for the studies with patients the amount 

 of food thus wasted was 16 per cent of the total amount provided; for 

 those with employees it was 24 per cent; considering all the studies 

 together it was 16 per cent. 



It would be still more interesting if possible to compare the amounts 

 wasted in the dining room with those served, because such comparison 

 would afford a better idea of how much food was served in excess of 

 the amounts actually eaten, the latter being, of course, the difference 

 between the amounts served and those wasted. The difficulty in mak- 

 ing such a comparison as just explained was that the dining-room 

 waste included some material that was never served. 



Such considerations of the total amounts of food eaten and wasted 

 are interesting, but the quantities of nutrients and energy per man 

 per daj' are of more significance. With regard to food eaten and 

 wasted these data form part of the account of the different studies on 

 pages 19 to Tl and are summarized in Table 31. The quantities of 



