Hidden realities: Food waste from servings in mini size packaging

•Service style, packaging, wastefulness cause 10–47%, 3–11%, 5–37% food waste (FW).•Packaging & consumer behaviour relevant FW depend on the food and service type.•Consumer wastefulness seems to increase with increases in their affluency.•Interplay of the packing properties with that of the food impacts the FW quantity. This paper provides data obtained from real-life measurement of the Food Waste (FW) associated with the services offering food in mini size (9–20 g) single-use packaging representing the impact of the difficulties in emptying the food from such packages and service characteristics. We collected discarded such food packages from commercial public eateries (a time-share thermal town, student canteen, and student refectory), quantified FW, and subjected data to statistical analysis regarding the eatery places, package characteristics, and food type. The results suggest that service style, packaging, and consumer wastefulness can cause 10–47 %, 3–11 %, and 5–37 % FW, respectively, indicating hidden part of the wastage iceberg from mini size food portions with vast implication on the food and relevant packaging sustainability. Regarding the packing, the dominant cause of FW is difficulties in emptying the food, such as the shape, size, depth, width, and material of the package. Concerning the consumer wastefulness, our measurements seem to imply that the groups with relatively higher affluency creates more FW. Our results will prove to be highly beneficial in both promoting efforts to raise awareness of not only consumers but also industry players and decision makers on the sustainability for food and relevant packaging material.