Session: 04-01 Research for Clean Energy Transition (Socio-Technical, Education and Policy)

Paper Number: 106820

106820 - The Difference in Blue Water Usage of Meals Prepared at Home Versus Meals Prepared Away From Home 

The global trend on increasing consumption of food prepared away from home (FAFH) versus food prepared at home (FAH) can have environmental consequences, particularly in regards to water scarcity. We therefore sought to determine the difference in blue water usage of FAFH versus FAH in order to inform consumers. USDA survey data was used to define the composition of food, and meal components were sorted into accessible categories to ascertain blue water footprints. It was found that FAFH consumes 33 L or about 16% more blue water per kilogram of food consumed than FAH. The difference in water usage comes mainly from the incredibly high consumption of beverages in FAFH, making up nearly 50% of the meal composition, with protein-based meals also making up much more of the water footprint than FAH. However, the gap in water footprint is mitigated by the increased consumption of high water-consuming snacks at home such as nuts and dried fruits as well as meal ingredients like processed oils in FAH.

Presenting Author: Aaron Wemhoff Villanova University

Presenting Author Biography: Aaron Wemhoff is an Associate Professor in the Villanova Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is an ASME Fellow, a former chair of the ASME HTD K-20 Computational Heat Transfer Committee, and a current Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications.