**3. Results**

During the measurement period, the 165 participant households generated 532.76 kg of food waste (Table 2). After extrapolation of the one week data per capita, the total per capita food waste was estimated to be 65.49 kg annually (Table 3).


**Table 2.** Quantity of food waste categories.

**Table 3.** Estimation of annual household food waste generation per capita.


The proportion of the avoidable fraction (which means the real wastage) was the highest, with 48.81% (31.97 kg annually) of the total food waste. The unavoidable food waste category accounted for 47.04% (30.81 kg annually). The most prevalent food types within this category were coffee grounds, inedible fruit and vegetable parts (inedible peels such as banana peels, citrus fruit peels, onion peels, and inedible stalk, woody parts, seeds, shell of nuts, etc.), bones, eggshell, and teabags. The potentially avoidable part, such as edible fruit and vegetable peels (e.g., apple, pear, cucumber, tomato, mushroom, zucchini), chicken skin, bread crust, greasy pieces of meat, pickling liquid, juices of canned food, and oil of canned fish represented the smallest proportion, with 4.16% (2.72 kg annually). Liquid food, such as soft drinks, coffee, tea, and soup appeared in the logs in significantly lower amounts compared to solid foodstuffs (Table 3).

Eighteen different food categories were defined based on the recorded elements within avoidable food waste. Results sugges<sup>t</sup> that consumers discard perishable foodstuffs more frequently and in larger quantities than durable products. Table 4 shows the mass and proportion of the established food waste categories.


**Table 4.** Quantity and proportion of food categories within avoidable food waste based on the one-week measurement in 165 households.

Meals (including homemade and ready-to-eat) account for the highest proportion (44.74%) of the total avoidable food waste. Bakery products (typically breads and bread rolls) are the second most common food items in this category (17.62%). Fresh vegetables and fresh fruits have also significant proportions, 10.00% and 7.54 %, respectively. Dairy products ranked in the fourth place of the list (7.95%). These five product categories altogether represent almost 88% of the total avoidable food waste.

Based on the actual data collected from the households, the quantity of annual avoidable wastage in the particular food categories has been estimated with extrapolation (Figure 2).

**Figure 2.** Annual avoidable wastage in different food categories per capita.
