business resource
How to cut food waste in your restaurant or catering business in association with UNILEVER FOOD SOLUTIONS
As much as 65 per cent of food waste in the hospitality industry occurs back of house and 30 per cent is left on consumer’s plates.
It’s estimated that 600,000 tonnes of food waste is generated every year with 400,000 tonnes of this food waste being avoidable had it been better portioned, managed, stored and prepared.
WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) estimates that the cost of this avoidable food waste to operators is worth over £720 million per annum and that each tonne of food waste costs a business £1,800 to get rid of.
Not only is wasting food bad for the environment, it’s also costly.
1. Don’t let your eggs go oeuf – Got excess eggs nearing their best before date in the kitchen? Don’t bin them; crack, whip and freeze them to use at a later date. This will extend your egg’s shelf life by 9-12 months
2. Think of veg off cuts as an extension of your larder – Don’t throw out leftover celery leaves; use them to make celery salt. Likewise, leftover potatoes can be mashed and used as pie topping, or turned into soup
3. Offer a choice of portion sizes – Research by WRAP has shown that a third of consumers leave food on their plate when dining out of home . Cut down plate waste by offering a variety of meal sizes – small, medium and large
4. Audit your plate waste – Make a note of what’s coming back from the dining room and think about what you can do to reduce plate waste. Simple swaps can not only reduce waste but save you money too. For example, swapping to curly leaf lettuce for garnish means you can use less and still achieve good plate coverage
5. Educate your team – Is there more waste at lunch than dinner? Or high spoilage from the pastry team? Unilever Food Solutions’ Wise Up On Waste app can help. The app allows chefs to accurately and conveniently track food waste over a three-day period to highlight the average waste generated by day part, per day, and per cover. It then generates email links to tools that allow the chef to take immediate action on their problem areas
6. It’s not all down to you – Tackling avoidable food waste is always more successful when the industry is working together. Don’t forget to ask your suppliers what they’re doing to minimise waste and how they can help you reduce your disposal costs
7. Don’t store fruit and veg together – Fruit gives off high levels of ethylene (a ripening agent) that can prematurely ripen and spoil surrounding produce. So, keep your avocados, tomatoes, mangoes and melons apart
8. The cheek of it – When ordering monkfish, never ask for ‘head on’ unless you need it for display purposes as it’s quite large and is unusable apart from the cheeks – creating additional waste
9. Put a lid on it – Try to use reusable storage containers with airtight lids – instead of expensive cling film. This will also help reduce your waste allocation
10. Digest your food waste – Get your food waste collected for anaerobic digestion or composting, opposed to being sent out to landfill. This can save chefs thousands of pounds every year, especially if landfill taxes are in place.
For more top tips download the free ‘Wise up on Waste’ app today go to: www.unileverfoodsolutions.co.uk/wasteapp.
Not only is wasting food bad for the environment, it’s also costly.
In response to the problem, Unilever Food Solutions, the leading supplier of modern professional ingredients to the hospitality and foodservice industry, has launched the new ‘Wise up on Waste’ app for chefs and caterers – a first for the industry. The app allows chefs to track food waste to highlight the average volume of each type of waste (spoilage, preparation or customer plate waste) generated per day part (breakfast, lunch and dinner), per day, and per cover.
Here are our top 10 tips to help chefs reduce waste and start saving money:
1. Don’t let your eggs go oeuf – Got excess eggs nearing their best before date in the kitchen? Don’t bin them; crack, whip and freeze them to use at a later date. This will extend your egg’s shelf life by 9-12 months
2. Think of veg off cuts as an extension of your larder – Don’t throw out leftover celery leaves; use them to make celery salt. Likewise, leftover potatoes can be mashed and used as pie topping, or turned into soup
3. Offer a choice of portion sizes – Research by WRAP has shown that a third of consumers leave food on their plate when dining out of home . Cut down plate waste by offering a variety of meal sizes – small, medium and large
4. Audit your plate waste – Make a note of what’s coming back from the dining room and think about what you can do to reduce plate waste. Simple swaps can not only reduce waste but save you money too. For example, swapping to curly leaf lettuce for garnish means you can use less and still achieve good plate coverage
5. Educate your team – Is there more waste at lunch than dinner? Or high spoilage from the pastry team? Unilever Food Solutions’ Wise Up On Waste app can help. The app allows chefs to accurately and conveniently track food waste over a three-day period to highlight the average waste generated by day part, per day, and per cover. It then generates email links to tools that allow the chef to take immediate action on their problem areas
6. It’s not all down to you – Tackling avoidable food waste is always more successful when the industry is working together. Don’t forget to ask your suppliers what they’re doing to minimise waste and how they can help you reduce your disposal costs
7. Don’t store fruit and veg together – Fruit gives off high levels of ethylene (a ripening agent) that can prematurely ripen and spoil surrounding produce. So, keep your avocados, tomatoes, mangoes and melons apart
8. The cheek of it – When ordering monkfish, never ask for ‘head on’ unless you need it for display purposes as it’s quite large and is unusable apart from the cheeks – creating additional waste
9. Put a lid on it – Try to use reusable storage containers with airtight lids – instead of expensive cling film. This will also help reduce your waste allocation
10. Digest your food waste – Get your food waste collected for anaerobic digestion or composting, opposed to being sent out to landfill. This can save chefs thousands of pounds every year, especially if landfill taxes are in place.
For more top tips download the free ‘Wise up on Waste’ app today go to: www.unileverfoodsolutions.co.uk/wasteapp.
