Bryan Lee (Group Leader) Kerby Soh Jeremy Lee Jesse Tan Justin Foo Teacher Mentor: Mr Jai

1. Raffles InstitutionResearch EducationFinal Report 2012What Is the Root Cause of Food Waste in Raffles Institution? Bryan Lee (Group Leader) Kerby Soh Jeremy Lee Jesse Tan Justin Foo Teacher Mentor: Mr Jai

2. Table of Contents • Introduction • Research Methodology • Survey and Interview Results • Analysis and Discussion • Conclusions

3. Research Introduction • Our research objective is to find out the root cause of food waste in RI. • This research is also carried out in the hope of raising awareness among RI boys as to why they are wasting food.

4. Research Introduction • Food wastage is not only a serious problem in RI, but in Singapore as a whole. • Food wastage also cause negative impacts to the community, such as taking up huge amounts of space to discard the food waste and many others.

5. Research Introduction • However, not much effort has been done to fine out the root cause of food wastage, so people do not know where to start in trying to curb food waste. Therefore, this is the main reason why we have chosen this topic to do research in. • Also, the findings of this research can also be placed into the national context as well.

6. Research Methodology • To collect more data and information for our research, we used two methods to get the data from people in the form of 2 ways: • a social survey • and an interview.

7. Survey • Our social survey is done in RI, where our participants are RI students from Year 1 to 4. of the sample size of 30, 20 agreed to participate and completed the survey. • The survey was given out during one of our recesses, and the completed surveys are collected by the third day. • Our survey is made so that we will be able to get more information about the root cause of food wastage in RI.

8. Interview • For the interview, we interviewed one of the RI Chicken Rice stallholders. • This interview was done on a day after school. • Our interview questions are also phrased so that the answers given will facilitate in our research in finding out the main cause of food waste.

9. As the independent variable of this research is the cause of food waste and the amount of food wasted, thus the survey and interview questions that are phrased based on the variable. • This is done so that we can garner more relevant information about our research.

10. Survey Results • Examples of our survey results:

11. Survey Results • The survey shows that: • Not many students waste food • Food wastage mainly due to inability to finish consuming the food • Food wastage is also caused by “picky” eaters • Most students know about the food wastage problem in RI but do not do anything about it

12. Survey Results • Most respondents stated that they ordered too much food and could not finish. Hence, they were forced to waste the food. From the survey, this is the main cause for the food wastage in RI. • A lot of respondents also said that they threw a component of the meal they disliked, such as vegetables or meat. Based on the survey, this was the second reason for the food wastage in RI.

13. Interview • Interviewee: Assistant Stall Vendor of Chicken Rice Stall in the Canteen of Raffles Institution. (Year 1-4 side)

14. Interview Results • Interviewee stated that: • The main reason for food wastage: • Ordering too much • Lack of time • Dislike for certain dishes such as vegetables • Stallholders should also play a part to reduce food wastage in RI • Food Wastage is not very severe in RI

15. Interview Results • In Conclusion: • Our findings from our survey corresponded with those of the interview • Food wastage is mainly due to bad eating habits and over-ordering of food • RI Students are aware of the problem of Food Wastage

16. Discussion

17. Conclusion

18. Limitations and Future Research

19. References

20. Acknowledgements