Author(s): Smitu Malhotra, Divya Saroja Chayanam
Globalization and increased disposable income amongst middle class Indians have increased the consumption of high calorie fast foods (Sanand, 2019). In addition to change in food consumption habits, the rising middle class quite often wastes part of the food (Rao, 2015). Food wastage comes with its share of carbon and water footprint (Aich and Ghosh, 2016). This study aims at estimating the water and carbon footprint for one such fast food which has gained popularity in India: the pizza. A two-step methodology (survey followed by observations), to understand pizza consumption and the habitual wastage behavior of the cosmopolitan middle income population of India, was used. The study found that the consumption is around 0.8 â????large pizzaâ???? equivalent per month per pizza consuming individual while the wastage of the pizza crust works up to 0.31 of â????large pizzasâ???? per individual. This translates into a water footprint of 20.28 liters of green water, 5.16 liters of blue water and 6.77 liters of grey water, adding up to a total water footprint of 32.21 liters per pizza consuming individual in India, per month. In addition, pizza crust waste would have a carbon footprint of 0.43 kg of carbon dioxide per pizza consuming Indian, per month. The research recommends flavoring the crust to reduce wastage.