Forecasting as a framework for reducing food waste in Ethiopian university canteens

Abstract

This paper uses forecasting model to prevent over production of uneaten food in student's cafeteria in Woldia University (Ethiopia). Students arrival in the university is highly variable. And it is difficult for the canteen management to estimate the number of students attend the meal during first two weeks of operation. The moving average and exponential smoothing forecasting methods were used to forecast the student's arrival for the year 2019. Mean absolute deviation (MAD) was used as a measure of forecasting accuracy. Finally, it is found that moving average were more accurate forecasting method than exponential smoothing for forecasting student's arrival in Woldia University.