International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction
Today marks the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction, a United Nations supported day that aims to serve as a rallying call to action for both the public (national or local authorities) and the private sector (businesses and individuals) to work to reduce food waste and build resilient-read food systems.
Some of the global food waste provided by the UN are shocking(1):
The UN also estimates that food loss and waste are responsible for approximately seven per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.?
We’ve spoken about food waste plenty in the past few months, but unfortunately, it’s an issue that continues to have major implications on the carbon footprints of restaurants, pubs and cafés.?
First a quick recap on the 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).
It’s clearly an issue the industry needs to tackle and it's one of the areas our team of experts at Knowledge Labs from Nutritics can help the hospitality sector with. We speak to Knowledge Labs Director Elbha Purcell for her top tips when it comes to minimising waste.?
Big Portions, big problems
A recent study by WRAP found that 48% of people waste food when eating out mainly because of excessively large portion sizes, with some 15% of main courses left uneaten(2). The report stated, especially in the current economic climate, that large portions were linked with customers’ perceptions of receiving value for money when they eat out.?
Ensuring that customers can take leftovers home is one way operators can maintain this value perception, although this brings with it both additional cost and packaging pressures.
The WRAP study discovered that over half of customers felt it would be useful to have clear information about side dishes and garnishes, whilst 51% wanted more choice on portion sizes – which could be a way operators could add flexibility to their menus.?
It’s clear that businesses need support monitoring their food waste so that they are able to make clear and actionable changes, which is where software such as Nutritics can support and automate this process.?
Be proactive with waste management
It’s also important for kitchens to monitor overproduction to ensure they are not consistently prepping more food than is sold and consumed. Food waste can often be the result of short-term thinking or simply by ‘doing what we have always done’ – kitchens need to take accountability for the waste they are creating and look to implement proactive solutions.?
For example, smaller menus, perhaps built around a core group of ingredients, can be one step towards reducing wastage. Smaller menus may also make it easy for kitchens to track inventory, provide faster service, lower burden on staff, and make deciding what to eat easier for your customers.
Getting creative with the core group of ingredients you have in stock is also a great way to ensure you’re using as much from the raw produce as possible. Herbs are a great example of this and by incorporating the same herbs into multiple dishes, you can make it easier to avoid waste at the end of the day.?
Food waste throughout the supply chain
The Financial Times recently published an article(3) with findings from the co-authors of ‘Food Waste Management Innovations in the Foodservice Industry’ (2018). One area they identified as helping to reduce future waste was if the true cost of food was more clearly outlined. They stated in the article:?
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“Current prices fail to account for social, environmental, health and economic externalities. Measuring the true cost including waste would help align market prices with social values.”
They pointed towards another study(4) that investigated the hidden costs of waste for food, using french fries as the example and identifying all the areas where waste occurs along the supply chain from the potato farms to our plates.??
The authors believed that by educating more people on the resources that go into producing the food on our table, there could be a shift in social attitudes towards food waste, encouraging all of us to work harder to ensure we limit waste wherever possible.?
The Guardians of Grub
In the last couple of years, WRAP has unveiled a new initiative to tackle food waste specifically in the hospitality and foodservice sectors, the Guardians of Grub | WRAP .??
With 18% of the food purchased by the UK hospitality and foodservice sector being thrown away, Guardians of Grub was created to assist businesses to get a grip of waste in their operations. The site has a Savings Calculator to help you easily understand how much money and carbon equivalent could be saved by reducing food waste.?
They have also compiled a list of useful resources, from posters for the kitchen and clear bin labels to more in-depth menu planning support and guides about reducing meat waste.
There are also various case studies so you can read first hand about how other businesses, big and small, have been able to make a positive difference when it comes to food waste.?
Final thoughts…
Jamie Crummie, founder of the food waste app ‘Too Good to Go’ recently described food waste as “one of the world’s dumbest problems” and it’s hard to argue with him on that point. Especially as it’s estimated that if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter behind the US and China.
So, it’s great that International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction exists, but the objective has to be to make this day redundant. And hospitality can play a vital role in changing perceptions around food waste.?
For everyone looking to make a difference when it comes to their own homes, this list from The Food and Agriculture Organization ( 联合国粮农组织 ) is a great place to start – with helpful advice around embracing wonky veg, storing food correctly and understanding food labelling - https://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1309609/.
If you’re looking for advice on sustainability in your business, get in touch with the Knowledge Labs team today - https://www.nutritics.com/en/services/knowledge-labs. Knowledge Labs provides Hospitality and Food Service (HaFS) operators with expert advice and support across a range of topics central to their ESG strategy, including food related sustainability, nutrition, employee wellbeing, and compliance.?
References
2 WRAP, Citizen Food Waste Attitudes and Behaviours Out of Home, 2023