Tackling food waste in a hospitality business

Food waste is a major problem in the hospitality industry, accounting for around 10% of all food waste. This is not only bad for the environment, but it is also bad for businesses, as it costs money to purchase and dispose of food that is not eaten.

So we’ve come up with our top tips to help businesses come up with create a zero food waste initiative as part of their Environmental and Social Governance plans. Utilising one of our onsite composters is just one of the ways that you can help the environment.

Measure and track food waste.

The first step to reducing food waste is to understand how much food is being wasted. This can be done by measuring and tracking food waste over a period of time.

Once you have a good understanding of how much food is being wasted, you can start to identify the areas where food is being wasted. This could be in the kitchen, the dining room, or even at the point of purchase.

Implement strategies to reduce food waste.

When you have identified the areas where food is being wasted, you can implement strategies to reduce it. This could include things like:

Improving forecasting. By forecasting demand more accurately, businesses can reduce the amount of food that is over-ordered.
Portion control. By ensuring that portion sizes are appropriate, businesses can reduce the amount of food that is left on plates.
Donating surplus food. Surplus food that is still safe to eat can be donated to charities such as soup kitchens.
Composting food scraps. This can be done by utilising an Oklin onsite food waste composter of course! Recycle your food waste into a valuable resource that can be used to grow produce or donated to local projects.

How to get your staff involved

It is important to get your staff involved in tackling food waste. They are the ones who are on the front line and who see first-hand where food is being wasted. You can get them involved in several ways including:

Educating them about the importance of reducing food waste. Explain to them the environmental and financial costs of food waste.
Empowering them to make decisions about food waste. Give them the authority to make decisions about how food is disposed of or purchased in the first place.

We have also seen some great success where hospitality businesses change their offering to customers to be more sustainable all year around.

Using fresh, seasonal and local ingredients can reduce the carbon footprint of the food in the first place encouraging a field to fork style offering.

Flexible menu options which have a focus on portion control or different food options that can be swapped in or out.

Packaging leftover food for guests to take home is a great way to reduce food waste and give guests a value-added service. Who has ever said no to a quality left over food at the end of the night?!

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