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Reducing Food Waste

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Understand the impact of food waste.

Identify action steps to reduce pre- and post-consumer food waste.

List the resources and tools available to help reduce food waste

To educate on the impact of food waste.

To provide strategies to reduce pre- and post-consumer food waste.

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Purpose:

Objectives:

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120,000,000,000

pounds of food waste in America each year!

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Impact of Food Waste

48%

Homes

20%

Restaurants, grocery stores, foodservice companies

17%

Farms

15%

Manufacturers

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Why Prevent Food Waste?

Financial Burden
Environmental Damage
Social Responsibility
Regulations & Proposed Regulations

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Financial Benefits of a Food Waste-Reduction Program

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Two Categories of Food Waste

Pre-Consumer

Before service of food
Spoilage/Expiration
Trimmings
Overproduction

Post-Consumer

After meal service waste
Plate waste
Behavior influenced
Controlled by patrons/guests

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Pre-Consumer Waste

An operator has more control over pre-consumer waste than post-consumer.

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Purchasing Considerations to Reduce Pre-Consumer Waste

Ready to Eat (RTE) items can greatly decrease food waste.

Pre-cut produce/Pre-washed lettuce
Pre-sliced meat/cheese

Review your last order to identify items that may have a short shelf-life/spoil rapidly or are used in only 1 application

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RTE Items

Not everyone cuts watermelon or a head of lettuce exactly the same way. Because of that, the waste produced can vary greatly from employee to employee. However there are many pre-sliced, cut or washed items that give you a 100% yield every time. Although these items do tend to cost a little more, when you consider the decrease in labor costs and the fact that your yield is 100% every time, you can even out on cost.

Some items that generate the most waste such as whole melons, squash or lettuce can be swapped for a pre-sliced/cut or washed version to help you decrease your food waste.

Review your most recent order:

Fresh produce is great to use on your menu. However, consider the items you could switch to a frozen version of so you don’t have to throw any out because of spoilage.

If you have only 1 recipe that uses goat cheese- and you always have ½ case left, consider switching it to something more widely used in other recipes. Or, consider incorporating that item into more recipes to use up existing product.

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Purchasing Considerations to Reduce Pre-Consumer Waste

Inventory

Know your numbers before you order
Use an Inventory Management system like Gordon Inventory

Order exact quantities

Based on your census & popularity of menu items

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Inventory is an important step in reducing food waste - if you don’t know your numbers, you may over-order and have waste. Using the Gordon Inventory program which is free to all Gordon Food Service customers, you can keep track of what you have on hand before you order. This prevents the possibility of ordering extra product, which might end up as waste if it’s a perishable item.

Ordering the right amount of product will help you reduce your waste also. By using the Cycle Menu Management Production module, you are able to enter your census numbers which are then applied to the menu and popularity index which creates order quantities for you. The system will even give you an exact amount for each case of product you need to order- so if you only need ¼ of a case and your inventory shows you have 0.5 case on hand- you know you don’t need to order an additional case.

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Production Considerations to Reduce Pre-Consumer Waste

Use production records to document how much food is left

Implement controls for preparation, service, and handling leftovers.

Upcycle or cross-utilize products across different recipes

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The number one cost leak in foodservice operations is over-production! Ten extra portions a day can add up fast: Let’s say the cost of food/labor/supplies for your entrée at lunch is $1 which X 10 extra portions= $10/day x 365 days/year = $3650/year!

Use production records to document how much food is left, and the plan for use of leftovers.

With the production module of Cycle Menu Management, recipes are scaled for you based on your census and production worksheets include a column for leftovers to be documented. Reviewing the leftovers column on a regular basis can help you determine which recipes you are frequently overproducing.

Implement controls for preparation, service, and handling leftovers.

Adjust recipes for the number of servings actually needed. Cycle Menu Management includes recipes that can be scaled to any number of servings very easily. All the recipes are standardized and include an exact portion size. Using a scoop means the scoop should be leveled off each time- not overflowing.

Upcycle or cross-utilize products across different recipes

Blend excess vegetable into a soup or stir-fry of the day or use the same product in multiple recipes to avoid food waste or spoilage

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Post-Consumer Waste

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EPA Wasted Food Scale

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You can’t eliminate food waste entirely, of course. But there are better ways of handling food waste than sending it to a landfill. The EPA recommends these options, in order of sustainable preference:

Prevent Wasted Food. Apply some of the measures we talked about in previous slides to avoid wasted food.

Donate. Donate non perishable and unspoiled perishable food to local food banks, pantries, and shelters. “When food is donated, it is used for its intended purpose which is to nourish people.” EPA, 10/2023. Food Donation Improvement Act signed into law in January 2023 helps reduce both food waste and food insecurity.

Upcycle. Edible parts of food as well as less desirable scraps can be upcycled into new food products. For example, orange peels can flavor beverages, broccoli stems can turn into slaw or dry into powder, and spent grains from the brewing process can turn into bread.

Feed animals or Leave Unharvested. Divert food to farmers, zoos, and other animal-feeding operations or leave unharvested to avoid the impact of overproducing and overdistributing.

Compost or Anaerobic Digest. Food waste can be combined with other organic materials to create compost, which is used as a soil amendment or a medium to grow plants. Specially equipped facilities can recycle food waste through a process that produces biogas and a soil amendment, two valuable products.

Apply to the Land. Raw wasted food from the food manufacturing and processing industry as a soil amendment.

Some of these options may not be available to you locally. But identify the resources that are and work with them to determine whether you can meet their requirements. Alternatively, you might blaze your own waste-reuse trail; some healthcare operations are installing grinder systems to create their own compost and using it around their campuses.

Whatever you do, you’ll be benefiting the planet and your bottom line.

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/wasted-food-scale

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Strategies to Reduce Post-Consumer Waste

Menu Strategies

Accurate & Timely Meal Orders

Right food, right temp every time!

Menu Should Reflect the Favorites

Frequently update the menu
Seasonal menu items

Consider Selective Menus or Room-Service Menus

Small portions diet
Keep records of the popular choices
Rotate leftovers into the menu/alternates

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Accurate & timely meal orders

Accuracy is important in foodservice for so many reasons- if the wrong meal is served to someone, they might be offended/upset and might even reject the meal altogether. So now you’ve wasted a few dollars of food & labor it took to prepare that incorrect meal for someone. And it might sound simple, but hot food should be served hot and cold food should be served cold. The farther from that preferable temp the food is served, the less palatable the meal is and it also loses nutritional value the longer you hold the food.

Menu should reflect the favorites

If you don’t know already, survey your students/patients/residents to determine which recipes are most popular or unpopular. These should be taken off the menu- if people aren’t eating it, you still ordered it and are most likely adding to your waste by keeping it on the menu. Also consider the seasonality of items- you will probably have more orders of fresh watermelon in July than you will in January.

Another strategy is to switch to a selective menu or a room-service style menu if you haven’t already.

Selective menus help you see exactly what people want to eat, when given a choice vs. a planned meal that is always prepared/delivered to your patients/residents. For those patients/residents that need assistance in selecting/ordering- do this as close to meal times as possible, not more than 12 hours before that meal is served preferably. The more time between selecting and meal service that goes by, the greater the chance someone might change their mind about what they want to eat at meal time.

Many hospitals and senior living facilities have switched to more simplified menus that feature only 1 rotating entrée or chef’s special in addition to an “always available” menu. By not having planned daily alternates and using a set of favorite items like soup/salad, sandwiches and a few sides this can eliminate the need for so many other items to order that may never be chosen by a patient/resident. Another option is to use the chef’s special from today as tomorrow’s alternate meal option.

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Strategies to Reduce Post-Consumer Waste

Menu Strategies

Meals should be presented attractively

Use garnishes

Color contrast

Provide an environment conducive to eating

Welcoming hostess
Warm colors
Wait staff to check up on tables
24 hour dining option

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Meals presented attractively

Science has shown that we do in fact eat with our eyes. More food is consumed when it looks attractive to eat. So use garnishes to spruce up your bland colored foods and remember that contrasting color helps improve intakes – especially if you have any patients or residents with Alzheimer's disease. Colored plates, cups and bowls can provide the contrast if the food itself doesn’t have much color.

Provide an environment conducive to eating

Start by having a hostess greet your patrons and make them feel welcome when they enter a dining area. Use warm colors instead of stark white or gray walls to entice them. If you don’t already, send someone to check up on each table a few times during meals to ask if they need any assistance, extra condiments or silverware for their meals. Another option is to have a 24 hour dining option. This might sound daunting, but having a few set menu items that are easy to heat in a microwave or just some cold salad/sandwich options can be a great way to cross-utilize items in your kitchen you always have on hand like bread, deli meat and condiments. Letting your students/patients or residents know that they can have food at any hour keeps them from choosing other dining options outside of your operation- which can be a source of food waste.

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Strategies to Reduce Post-Consumer Waste

Menu Strategies

Registered Dietitian (RD) Involvement

Interventions when a patient/resident isn’t eating well

Adjust diet
Fortified foods

Communicate patient/resident eating issues to foodservice that may decrease meal intake

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RDs provide appropriate interventions (medical, emotional, environmental) when resident/patient is not eating well to improve intakes.

For example, if a patient/resident is on a new medication that has decreased their appetite, it might be wise to switch the resident to a smaller portion diet or even allow them to use a selective menu so only the food they want to eat is served to them- and there is less waste. Or if a patient has increased calorie needs due to wound healing or other reasons, the fortified foods or high calorie/high protein diet could help. The foodservice department would need to be notified of this change as well, since more food and some fortified recipes will be served to anyone on this diet.

RDs and other interdisciplinary care team members should communicate with foodservice to communicate any issues that may impact eating.

By letting the kitchen staff know these issues, food waste can be decreased.

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Strategies to Reduce Post-Consumer Waste

Monitoring

Plate Waste log

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0%

50%

100%

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One of the best ways to track post-consumer waste is to perform a plate-waste study. This requires the foodservice staff to closely monitor trays and meals after service.

After a meal or tray is served, and before the food is thrown out, each meal should be documented in a standard way to indicate how much food was eaten and how much was left (waste).

In order to know this, the person documenting must know what the full meal was that was served.

Training is important to help standardize the process so each person is documenting accurately. These images of the apple could be used to demonstrate 0%, 50% and 100% of an apple that was consumed. Obviously, the 100% for some items (like an apple) will still be visible because of the inedible apple core. However, other items- like mashed potatoes might have nothing left at all- but the staff member documenting would see that the meal included the mashed potatoes- and if there is nothing on the plate, the potatoes were 100% consumed.

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Resources & Tools

LeanPath

www.leanpath.com
Automated food waste tracking and monitoring

Cycle Menu Management

Scaled recipes and standardized recipes with portion sizes
Census-specific production reports with leftover tracking
Census-specific order quantities

Gordon Inventory

FREE inventory tracking system

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Thank you.

If you have questions,

Please contact the Nutrition Resource Center at:

1.800.968.4426

nrc@gfs.com