Food waste is costing the restaurant industry more than $25 billion, according to ReFED and other non-profit organizations committed to reducing food waste in United States as well as the rest of the world.
This issue is a tremendous opportunity to eliminate or minimize waste of time, labor and food. Independent restaurants operators are in a unique situation to act due to the freedom they have to make decisions without going through the corporate bureaucracy seeking approval.
Although food waste solutions are cost-efficient when implemented, is estimated that for every dollar spent on food waste prevention returns $8 in savings, according to ReFED.
To cut food waste is recommended to implement a series of hierarchic solutions such as:
- Smarter purchasing
- Inventory and creative reuse of purchased products
- Recover edible food and feed it to other people
The restaurant industry is a major contributor of food waste, from the left-over food left on plates and tossed in the garbage bin or uneaten food thrown away because it’s spoiled before it was served. The real amount and cost of food waste is unbelievable high: according to industry studies is estimated that the restaurant industry account for 7.5 million tons of wasted food each year and for limited-service restaurants the food waste totals 4.1 million tons per year.
The Food recovery solutions keep food out of landfills where it creates harmful methane gas as it decomposes. At the bottom of the hierarchy is food recycling solutions, which divert food out from landfills to anaerobic digestion sites, or even pigpens (yes, future bacon can dine on treated food waste).
Food Waste Prevention
400,000 tons of food can be prevented from reaching the landfills by implementing preventive solutions which in turn will provide an additional $625 million in profit per year.
Before restaurants owners and operators can prevent food from going to waste, they must understand what’s being wasted, when and why. Enter food waste tracking or auditing, which almost half of restaurant operators do at present, per the National Restaurant Association. By tracking food waste, operators can better understand the circumstances contributing to food waste, then make positive changes to prevent waste (and save money).
A food waste audit also generates buy-in from employees and stakeholders who may not understand the scale of the problem because they are not watching the waste hauler take it all away. Data also provides a baseline, which can be motivating. Employees can collaborate to bring the numbers down, and then celebrate when milestones are reached.
While restaurant operators can use software, a pen and paper system work well for operators on tight budgets. Waste auditing methods can be as simple as tallying the number of trash bags produced every day, or as complex as having employees’ sort and weigh all food waste at their workstations before dumping it into the trash or compost.
Along with auditing food waste, restaurant owners and operators can implement inventory management solutions, which take the guesswork out of purchasing to help control food costs.
Unknown waste points to a problem area that requires additional troubleshooting. Is the new cook using the wrong quantity of an ingredient or getting the portion size wrong? While the restaurant pays either way with higher operating costs, the problem is easy to fix once operators can isolate it.
Another big part of measuring waste is understanding the difference between the known and the unknown waste. Known waste may be as obvious as a broken bottle of juice in the walk-in, you see it and you take measures to avoid breakage in the future
Unknown waste points to a problem area that requires additional troubleshooting. Is the new cook using the wrong quantity of an ingredient or getting the portion size wrong? While the restaurant pays either way with higher operating costs, the problem is easy to fix once operators can isolate it.
If you find out that you are over portioning and correct it, it will save you a lot of money when you start thinking over months and years, it’s those little things that we, as operators don’t realize.
There are some tricks that will help you prevent waste. Many operators find themselves over-ordering just to meet a supplier minimum quantity, you may try to negotiate for smaller minimum quantity, so you don’t have to buy anything that you don’t want or need to meet the minimum.
Most chefs are no strangers to using up odds and ends through nightly specials or staff meals, but there are other creative and free ways to prevent food waste. Simplifying recipes to use fewer ingredients shaves waste, as does slimming down the number of items on display in a bakery case — it need not be stuffed to look visually appealing.
Along with implementing portion control guidelines, owners and operators can ensure all parts of ingredients are used.
Moving into the dining side of things, a simple, often-overlooked solution to curbing food waste is to let guests choose their preferred side, with no fee. Consider that a budget-minded guest might get fries they don’t want rather than pay extra to enjoy a side salad. Since they didn’t really want the fries, they won’t eat many of them. Offering portion sizes is another way to give guests control over their meal. Letting leaner eaters opt for less food is a no-brainer that works for everyone.
Buffet-style restaurants might implement smaller plates, which can reduce food waste by up to 20 percent since studies have shown that people tend to fill their plates 70 percent because the ratio is visually appealing.
Recover Food Waste
Food recovery programs help restaurants get uneaten food into the hands of hungry people – and have the potential to keep 390,000 tons of food (or 643 million meals) out of landfills.
With a little math, restaurant operators can calculate the potential tax benefits and financial savings of food donations (such as lower waste disposal fees). Getting started with food donation is surprisingly easy, thanks to food recovery apps that streamline the process.
Alena Murphy, National Site Administrator of Food Rescue US, said that the largest obstacle to food recovery efforts is «misinformation or just an assumption that restaurants can’t give anything away because if someone gets sick, they’re going to sue.» The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which was signed into law in 1996, protects restaurants from liability for food donated in good faith; however, many in the industry are unaware of the legislation.
Senior Technical Consultant & Web Developer Tod Hing, who was active in food recovery initiatives in San Francisco, notes that organizations used to call a dispatcher who could connect them to an open shelter that could accommodate the food donation. «[It] could take thirty minutes or more to get that match,» Hing explains. The inconvenience meant that only committed restaurant operators prioritized donating leftovers.
Sensing an opportunity to streamline things for volunteers and donors – and increase the amount of food recovered – Hing developed ChowMatch, a software technology that uses matching logic to connect food donors and recipient organizations, in 2014. Now, Hing explains, «The restaurant, let us know what kind of food they have, when it should be picked up and [the system matches] in seconds and a message goes out to volunteers,» who can then claim the food recovery run.
Don’t Waste Food…. Donate – Recycle
California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont prohibit commercial food waste. New York added a clause to its latest budget mandating that food waste either be donated or recycled (essentially, converted into energy-be it biodiesel fuel or garden compost). However, as ReFED notes, throughout much of the country there are significant barriers to waste recycling. Restaurant operators may be reluctant to implement recycling initiatives due to worry over pests or lack of available space for storage bins where items can be held until recycling.
Or the process may seem daunting, with well-meaning operators unsure of where to start. Every effort to reduce waste adds up and starting where there are already local partners to streamline the recycling process makes the most sense, from a productivity standpoint.
Cooking oil is an easy win, as some oil suppliers will take away used cooking oil for conversion into biodiesel – and they may even offer a green discount. McDonald’s, which started recycling their fryer oil in 2007, collected some 3.7 million liters of used oil in 2013. When converted to biodiesel, their waste oil could fuel 42 percent of the fast food giant’s delivery fleet.
In the mid-Atlantic region, the non-profit Oyster Recovery Partnership offers oyster shell recycling. Some 340 restaurants participate, and there are 60 public drop sites located throughout the region. Each shell can be used to plant 10 new oysters, thus helping clean waterways and revitalize the regional oyster industry. Since the Partnership’s launch in 1994, 145,000 bushels of oyster shells have been reclaimed. Local businesses have saved some $300,000 in waste collection fees and kept 5,100 tons of waste out of landfills.
Recycle Food Waste
Why Food Waste Matters?
Food waste is in the public eye, with media coverage including CBS Evening News, ABC, NBC and many others.
By reducing food waste, restaurants can enhance their reputation and their bottom line while giving back to their community through food recovery and recycling initiatives. 47 percent of diners indicated they would be willing to spend more to eat in a restaurant that participated in food recovery, a Unilever survey revealed.
ReFED notes food waste goals are most likely to be met when they’re time-bound, quantifiable and shared (for accountability). Rather than strive for perfection out of the gate, ReFED recommends a culture of continuous improvement. Restaurant operators can solicit feedback from employees who might have a great idea.
While it can seem like a lot of work to implement food recovery and recycling solutions, as Murphy explains, «it’s just as easy to give [food] to a volunteer who would be waiting at the back door as it would be to take it out the back door and put it in the dumpster.»
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