Food waste remains a massive issue for the hospitality and foodservice (HaFS) sector. With the UK Government targeting a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030 as part of Scope 3 Food and Drink protocols, it’s only going to become more pressing in the years ahead.
Of course, all food and drink production has an environmental impact — but if the food isn’t even consumed, then the cost becomes even bigger, as food waste produces methane emissions when sent to landfill. The numbers are staggering: the World Wildlife Fund reports that 40% of all grown food in the world goes uneaten. According to WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), food waste costs UK restaurants a massive £682m per year. It’s clear that tackling waste needs to be a priority for businesses, not only as part of their sustainability journey, but also to improve their bottom line.
The good news is that awareness of this problem is on the rise, and there are several solutions businesses can adopt. In our latest article, we explore a few ways hospitality businesses can minimise food wastage in the months ahead…
Know your waste
Establish a baseline for food waste in your business and gain insight into what is causing your food waste and where it is going. After all, knowledge is power, and having a more rounded understanding of your waste will allow you to focus your energies on reducing this in the months ahead.
There are four types of waste – spoilage (e.g. dropping eggs in the kitchen), preparation (for example, when you peel potatoes), plate waste (consumer leftovers) and ‘other waste’ (e.g. buffet wastage). If you need help tracking and reporting on your waste - check out our new Food Waste capability, developed in line with WRAP guidance.
Nutritics already calculates the preparation waste for each item of food - for example, we know how many grams of potato are wasted when you peel one. Now we have expanded the software so you can track all types of food waste, in addition to identifying causes and destinations, and converting these into useful metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and revenue loss.
Knowledge is power
Tracking your food waste can help you to identify hot spots in your kitchen and on your menu where food waste is highest, and can highlight easy changes you can make to your operations or menus that can have multiple benefits. For example, if a certain dish is often sent back to the kitchen with plate waste, the portion may be too large for your consumers. Reducing your portion sizes or offering part of the dish such as chips as an “add-on” may therefore not only reduce cost and environmental impact of your dishes, but make your consumers feel better about finishing their plate each time. We’d be happy to discuss how our software can support you measure and reduce your waste in 2023.
There’s an app for that
There is now a plethora of apps available for restaurants to utilise, allowing them to sell any leftover meals or ingredients at a discounted rate. For the hospitality sector, many companies are now redistributing leftover food for human consumption or animal feed. One such app “Too Good to Go” has established itself as the platform for restaurants, bakeries and cafés to offer any unsold products to consumers. While reducing absolute waste should be prioritised, redistributing food waste using apps is a far better option than food going in the bin.
Another solution, “FoodCloud”, has redistributed 39 million meals across four markets, including the UK and Ireland, and prevented approximately 52,416 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Research what companies in the sector are already successfully doing and see if it fits your business.
Smaller menus
With restaurants impacted by rising costs, staffing shortages and consumers reducing their number of out-of-home meals because of tightening budgets, many restaurants are shrinking their menus to save money. Whilst not always an ideal situation, one positive outcome is that there is much less food waste as a result. Smaller menus, perhaps built around a core group of ingredients, can be one step towards reducing wastage. As supply chains become increasingly disrupted due to political and environmental reasons, a smaller menu may not only reduce food waste across your business, but may result in an easier to track inventory, faster service, lower burden on staff, and make deciding what to eat easier for your customers.
Get creative
For some restaurants, leftover food is viewed as an opportunity. Levan restaurant in London repurposes and reuses 90% of its discards, with leftover herb stalks made into ferments and infusions and souring milk used to make fresh curd cheese. At Ugly Butterfly restaurant in Cornwall, their snack and small plate menus deliberately emphasise the four most-wasted food items (bread, eggs, milk and bananas), ensuring their use. Companies can also switch from fresh to dried garnishes on dishes and drinks, which can look just as aesthetically pleasing without the short shelf life.
One person’s waste is another’s treasure…
Leftover bread going spare? That’s gold dust for the team at Toast Ale, where they brew beer from fresh bread surplus that bakeries would otherwise discard. Food scraps? These could be redirected to local farmers to feed livestock, saving them money; this is also often cheaper for restaurants than sending to landfill. It’s always worth exploring different avenues to see what can be done with your food waste in the local area. Get ideas from your staff on how they think food waste could be re-used in the kitchen, or redirected for another use instead of to landfill.
Food waste won’t disappear overnight, but with the help of technology and a little bit of ingenuity, restaurants can cut down their leftovers, saving money and helping the environment in the process.