Taste it but not Waste it!

But who is responsible for food waste?

Instead of laying the blame for food waste onto a specific group we first want to identify where and why it is actually happening. Food is wasted in its entire value chain, starting with production and harvesting all the way through storage, distribution and consumption. But what is food waste and how does it differ from food loss? The FAO defines food loss as caused by poor functioning of the production and distribution within the supply chain, while food waste happens at a later stage, when the consumable food is removed from the overall supply, mainly through spoilage or expiration. The causes for this to happen can lie in economic behavior, poor stock management or neglect.

According to the EU, 70% of EU food waste arises in the household, food service and retail sectors, with production and processing sectors contributing the remaining 30%. This means that 70% of food is wasted at a later stage in the supply chain while only 30% is lost early on. Food waste not only means financial loss, but also means that a high amount of valuable resources such as water, soil and energy have been spent in vain. In this blog we therefore will focus mainly on food waste rather than food loss since we as a consumer are not only responsible for it but can also directly influence it towards a more positive outcome. The importance of taking concrete actions towards its prevention is becoming more evident.

Food waste in the hospitality sector

The association of catering business in the Netherlands estimates that its industry generates around 55,000 tons of food waste each year (KHN, 2020). This is sometimes due to dishes of excessively large portions, food safety and hygiene regulations, gluttonous ordering, or just a lack of creativity in the preparation of still useable ingredients in recipes.

Food waste in the catering industry typically occurs during the cooking process inside the kitchen as well as during meal consumption by the customers. A rising number of catering business owners are dedicated to wasting as little food as possible and these days we can see an increasing number of “zero-waste” restaurants emerging all over the country. But in the Dutch food service industry an excessive amount of food is still thrown away.

In a study on food wasted in Dutch restaurants, 112 business owners were interviewed and, interestingly, more than 80 percent of the respondents said they don’t measure the amount of food wasted or they just measure it partially since it takes too much effort or too much time and resources. Of course, such an endeavor may seem difficult at a first glance since it demands the investment of both time and resources. Yet, the benefits of such actions are clear. Food waste reduction, or even better, prevention, could help the restaurants to manage their financial balance through better selection and handling of the ingredients they buy. Sometimes, simple solutions can lead to the reduction of a considerable amount of food waste. In this blog we are going to suggest some simple tips to restaurants that can help them to reduce the amount of food wasted in their restaurants based on the guidelines introduced by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Where to start?

The first step for a restaurant to reduce their food waste is to identify hotspots in their business: i.e. the stages or activities that lead to food waste generation. This task could be divided into two main parts: pre- and post-consumer waste. The first part, as the name suggests, looks at the food which is wasted in the kitchen during or after the food preparation process or anywhere else before it is served to the customers. The second part is about the food which is collected from the tables after the customer left or which maybe returned post-order for a number of reasons (e.g. unacceptable quality, customer complaints etc.).

Track your food waste

The first step towards estimating how much food is wasted in the restaurant is to make sure if the bought product is used wisely or if there have been miscalculations of how much was needed. Raw material might have spoiled before being used, which not only means the food was wasted but also a financial loss. Although it is impossible to accurately gauge the amount of needed ingredients and restaurants often rely on experience on how much they need to buy, there are today technical solutions which can help them determine at which stage in the restaurant food chain food was wasted, if the problem is pre-consumer food waste or post-consumer food waste.

This can be done by tracking and assessing the amount of food wasted, for which the EPA’s Food and Packaging Waste Prevention Tool can be used. This tool is an excel sheet which can be filled in based on the data gathered on the food type, amount, and the waste point (pre- and post-customer food). The sheet can be adapted or recreated for each restaurant for convenience.

This method requires the staff to write down the amount of food items, including the reason for discarding this item. It is important to keep track of the type of food wasted (e.g., meat, fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy, etc.), the amount of the food wasted, and the process or activity in which food is wasted (expiration before use, spoiled arrival, food preparation, after cooking, sent back by customer, etc.).

Pre-consumer food waste reduction

Analyzing the gathered data makes it possible to determine which type of food is wasted where and why. Is it mostly protein product expiring or are fruit and vegetables arriving already spoiled at the restaurant the problem? Based on the answers to these questions the ordering manager could order less protein in the future to avoid spoilage or collaborate with the fruit and vegetable supplier to ensure the produce arrives fresh (or, if necessary, change the supplier). This tool not only provides restaurants with a good inventory of their food items, but also helps them to properly store them, to have an organized stock, to buy ingredients based on actual consumption, and to find alternative ways of using ingredients (for example by using meat leftovers in soups of by using vegetables in sauces).

According to our study, the main reasons for pre-customer food waste generation in Dutch restaurants include the partial (i.e. not whole) use of food ingredients by the cooks, the lack of communication and feedback between service and kitchen operations on portion size, plate leftovers by customers, and more. Furthermore, much of the food wasted was a result of standardized side dishes such as fries and salad, of excessive purchases by both the restaurant and the customer due to bad forecasting, of a failure to utilize set grams or quantities for dishes, and of portions that are typically too large to be consumed by the average customer. All these problems can be solved both by training the staff and by having an informative menu. For example, by utilizing predetermined preparation quantities, by properly utilizing all parts of food ingredients, by stating in the menu the amount of different ingredients used, by giving accurate information about the dish size, and by putting side dishes like salads, vegetables, fries and soups in a buffet.

In the end, the restaurant should be able to donate the remaining edible food to charities, to give them to the staff to take home, or to donate or sell it to farmers as animal feed. Our study showed that, currently, only 5% of restaurants sell or donate their edible food waste to charities or resell it to other organizations. This low number is due to regulations and quality restrictions related to food donations, but also to the additional complexity and logistical stress which at first glance does not seem to yield any concrete profit for the restaurant. Some apps like Too-Good-ToGo, startups like “Instock Amsterdam”, food banks and community activities like “little free pantry” can facilitate this process by selling, sharing, or processing exceeded products or food from restaurants.

Post-consumer food waste reduction

But food is not only wasted inside the kitchen, but also when it leaves the kitchen. Restaurant staff has no control at this stage since the eating behavior of guests also plays a role in the amount of food wasted. The restaurant management can only ensure that proper information about portion sizes and meal ingredients is given to the customers and that the staff is able to communicate this information clearly to the customers. We found that more than 60% of restaurants think the role of customers in preventing food waste is important whereas only 30% of customers thought their role is important. But what could the restaurant owners do to alter customer behaviors in preventing food waste?

One important strategy which the restaurant can use is to adopt a “traffic log system” as explained on the website of Webstaurantstore. This system allows restaurants to log the number of customers, the weather conditions, as well as the customer preferences of sitting inside or outside of the restaurant on a daily base. The data can then be used for planning for the following year’s customer volume to get an indication or projection of how much food may be ordered based on the time of year and the weather. Over time, the cumulative data will become more valuable as the trends become clearer. A simple method is to check whether the POS systems feature daily log capabilities. Other methods restaurants could use include provisioning detailed information about portion sizes and meal ingredients as well as identifying the most favored dishes in anticipatory meal planning. The latter can also help restaurants to improve their buying decisions when ordering ingredients and raw materials.

Finally, the restaurant can encourage the guests to take their food back home. In our study, 75% of restaurants claimed that customers never (or only sometimes) request a take-out box or a doggie bag when they have food remaining on their plate.

Furthermore, customers do not frequently request advice or guidance regarding the size of the dishes, a point which could allow restaurants to become more creative. Guiding the customer towards a less wasteful behavior could include giving more information about the size of the dish or having the option of offering one dish in different sizes, a step which some restaurants have already taken by marking the exact size of the standard portion while also offering a smaller version for children or a bigger version to share with several people. Informing the guest about the amount of potatoes, rice or meat used for each dish will also make the decision easier. Restaurants can also suggest the customer take the remaining food back home and even encourage guests to bring their own food containers to avoid additional waste.

One last step restaurants can undertake after the customer has left the picture is to donate food to either animal shelters or farms as animal feed or compost. If the food is still consumable it should also be made possible to easily donate food to charity organizations which can then distribute it before it goes to waste.

Our conclusion

Food waste is in one of the major challenges our society faces in view of droughts caused by climate change and of millions of people going hungry every day. Making sure we are handling our food resources in a responsible way is making sure we are getting one step closer to a world in which no one must go hungry anymore. We have shown that by applying just a couple of very simple methods restaurants can change their modus operandi and adapt to a less wasteful way of ordering, cooking, and serving, which could in just a few years lead to a significant decline in food waste in the service industry. Even though these methods might require some time investment they are not a financial burden on the budget and will most likely yield a higher revenue over time. There is no reason to wait – implementing these changes today is still better than not implementing them at all.