Retailers can help reduce such losses through— 
1. Proper receiving —by practicing established methods for careful 
handling. 
2. Adequate storing —by following acceptable standards pre¬ 
scribed for stacking, ventilating, lighting, and maintaining tempera¬ 
ture and humidity. 
3. Correct displaying and selling —by presenting food in an 
environment away from the elements and by following good merchan¬ 
dising practices such as rotating, culling, segregating, and adjusting 
prices on products in danger of imminent deterioration. 
Waste in the Public Eating Place 
The American public eats 55 million meals a day in public eating 
places. Estimates are not available on the food waste under the 
control of restaurant management—through inadequate facilities, 
poor cooking, overstocking, overproduction, or inexperienced help, 
but it is estimated there is a 6 percent or larger waste in food left on 
plates by restaurant patrons. 
The operator of a public eating place has a threefold task: 
1. Educate his kitchen and service personnel on the ways and means 
of saving food in the kitchen. (Here, factors in food wastage and 
the means of correcting them are much the same as those which 
apply in the home kitchen.) 
2. Offer his patrons menus which are less elaborate and at the 
same time varied and well-balanced. (It has often been shown that 
the public is more interested in quality than in quantity of choices 
offered.) 
3. Assist in educating his patrons to order only what they want 
and to eat everything they purchase. 
Waste in the Home 
Americans eat more than 135 billion meals a year. If these meals 
are poorly planned, not prepared well, and are not all eaten, if left¬ 
overs or remains of too large portions are not utilized, the door is left 
open for tremendous waste. 
On the next few pages are listed major failures of planning that 
cause waste and some ways in which this loss can be eliminated. 
Waste in the Planning of Meals 
1. Failure to take full advantage of foods in seasonal abundance, 
especially perishables, results in waste. Proper planning not only 
saves the full nutrient value of the fresh crop to the consumer, but 
also saves foods which may be used when perishables are scarce. 
2. Planning meals ahead cuts down waste in the home due to lack 
of storage space. There is no sense in buying foods for which there 
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