ECO-TRENDS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS

Abstract

The restaurant business is one of the most significant components of the hospitality industry. One of the main tasks today remains the analysis of the restaurant services market and the determination of the main trends in its development, which allow entrepreneurs to open up new opportunities for establishing a business in the most popular and promising segment niches, which may lead to further development of the restaurant business in Ukraine. However, the study of the peculiarities of eco-restaurants has not been reflected in the scientific environment today. In the restaurant business, this is a trend of introducing eco-products into the menu and using eco-products in everyday life. Despite this, ecologically clean food in combination with the restaurant business is a very relevant direction for modern restaurateurs and practitioners of the restaurant business. One of the biggest environmental problems of this industry is food waste and disposable tableware. A significant contribution to total food losses is made by the hospitality industry (cafes, bars, restaurants, catering). At the current stage, in many restaurants, there is an appeal to "green practices", eco-logical methods of restaurant business, dominance of vegan dishes in the menu. Eco-care is a popular trend among people who take care of their health and adhere to an ecological lifestyle. In order to attract consumers with the new "eco" trend, restaurants introduced the use of environmentally friendly products in the preparation of dishes. World trends of recent years have shown an increase in the number of establishments operating according to the norms of ecological culture, including enterprises of the restaurant industry. Research shows that consumers pay close attention to how restaurants operate when it comes to food waste, energy consumption and packaging. Common environmental practices include waste management by sorting (77%), recycling (70%), using environmentally friendly single-use packaging (90%), as well as installing energy-saving and water-saving equipment (83% and 66%, respectively). Therefore, the trend towards ecologically clean food establishments is growing.