Unilever launches app to help chefs cut food waste
Sustainable food news – by Saran Mishra
4th June 2013
Consumer goods giant Unilever has launched an industry-first app that could help the fight against food waste.
The free app called ‘Wise Up on Waste‘ is designed for chefs and caterers to identify and reduce their food waste. It potentially could help reduce food waste by five per cent, Unilever said.
The multinational, which is behind food brands such as Hellmans and Knorr, has conducted research that suggests a quarter of consumers admit to leaving food on their plates when dining out.
“Up to 50 per cent of the world’s food is being thrown away and what’s even more shocking, is that 1.2-2 billion tonnes of food produced around the world never makes it on to a plate,” Tracey Rogers, managing director of Unilever Food Solutions said.
The multinational, which is behind food brands such as Hellmans and Knorr, has conducted research that suggests a quarter of consumers admit to leaving food on their plates when dining out.
“Up to 50 per cent of the world’s food is being thrown away and what’s even more shocking, is that 1.2-2 billion tonnes of food produced around the world never makes it on to a plate,” Tracey Rogers, managing director of Unilever Food Solutions said.
Tackling food waste in the kitchen
By 2020, Unilever wants to source 100 per cent of agricultural raw materials sustainably and help caterers make 200 million meals daily healthier, tastier and more enjoyable. Additionally, it says it wants chefs run a more efficient kitchen and reduce their waste. It believes small actions from food professionals could have a significant impact in this area and Wise up on Waste creates an ideal opportunity to engage them and link with them for optimal results. According to Unilever research, 88 per cent of chefs already use mobile apps. Unilever believes that ease of use of the app will give chefs an extra motive to track the food waste in their kitchens.
According to Unilever,” the app allows chefs to accurately and conveniently track food waste over a three-day period, or that of their choice, to highlight the average waste generated by day part, per day, and per cover.” It additionally gives them advice on consumer waste management and has a comparison mechanism to the industry average. Chefs and caterers can then graphically depict their progress on the path to cutting down on food waste.
As the European Parliament has deemed 2014 as being the ‘European Year against food waste’, Unilever has made some lofty commitments; not only is it trying to help chefs achieve at least five per cent reduction in food waste, but it is also trying to help to provide more healthy and nutritious meals to at least one million people, including students.
UK launch
As the European Parliament has deemed 2014 as being the ‘European Year against food waste’, Unilever has made some lofty commitments; not only is it trying to help chefs achieve at least five per cent reduction in food waste, but it is also trying to help to provide more healthy and nutritious meals to at least one million people, including students.
UK launch
Unilever has only launched the Wise Up on Waste app in the UK so far. Depending on the success of the app, though, it will “roll out to further countries across the globe”, the company said.
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Last week, supermarket giant Tesco announced it was launching a major programme to tackle global food waste.
According to a report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers as much as half of all food produced in the world — almost two billion tonnes – ends up as waste every year.
“Not only is this having a severe environmental impact, but with each ton of food waste costing a business £1,800 it’s making a serious financial impression too,” Rogers said.
Unilever has set itself the ambitious task of doubling the size of its business by 2020 at the same time as cutting its environmental impact by half.
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