Food Waste Focus

The Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA) cares for veterans across the US at hundreds of hospitals and clinics. As a result, they serve a lot of food and have worked diligently to improve the sustainability of their operation. A VHA foodservice professional recently shared their “Sustainability Checklist” with me – it’s the product of extensive work [...]

On this blog we talk about Waste Tracking.  Mostly about Food Waste Tracking.  But there are a others kinds of waste that we could be tracking like water or energy.  In almost every building, the foodservice area uses the most energy and has many opportunities to reduce that energy footprint. The folks at Energy Star [...]

Question: Why is it so important to REDUCE food waste?  Some people say “Why should I bother to REDUCE the amount of food I purchase?  If it’s wasted, leftover or spoiled I can just compost it.” Answer: Over 95% of the environmental impact from the day-to-day operations of a food service business comes from the [...]

Everyone agrees it’s critical to keep food and other organics out of landfills to avoid methane production (a very potent greenhouse gas).  One of the popular strategies is to compost food waste.  I believe composting - when used in conjunction with a comprehensive food waste tracking/source reduction program – can be an excellent solution to divert [...]

The AG division of The Hale Group, a well-known food consultancy, recently released an article titled “Can the World Feed Future Generations?”  The report cites a 2009 United National Environment Program report showing evidence that 30% of our food supply is lost, or wasted, and that: According to the UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, “We [...]

Product Evaluations, Inc. releases the Operator Sentiment Report periodically, reflecting the attitudes and opinions of approximately 1000 chefs, owners and operators.  I recently heard a presentation they made at the SFM Breakfast at the National Restaurant Association Show, where they revealed the Top 2 operator business concerns: Thinking about your foodservice operation and the business [...]

Green Seal, the familiar name that certifies the environmental benefits of many cleaning products, recently released a new standard (GS-46) for Green Restaurant and Foodservice Operations.  The standard involved almost a year of development and was created with a rigorous, open process than involved extensive public comment.   I served on the technical committee and saw [...]

Food Management Magazine recently profiled Swedish Medical Center’s efforts to reduce food waste through continuous waste tracking.  Using systems from LeanPath,  Swedish has been tracking waste data for approximately one year at its largest location, First Hill.  Their stellar results caught the attention of the editors at Food Management and Swedish has now expanded the program [...]

Encouraging news from a giant in the supermarket industry.  Hopefully others will follow. This was published on May 14th GreenBiz.com DUBLIN, Calif. — Safeway stores recycle about 85 percent of their solid waste through a series of programs that have diverted hundred of thousands of tons of garbage from landfills. The company’s 85 percent diversion [...]

Putting Surplus Food to Good Use – A How-To Guide for Food Service Providers. This link takes you to the EPA website where you can download this informational 2-page document. The document has over ten separate links for additional resources on reducing food waste. http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/organics/pubs/food-guide.pdf There are many ways food service providers can improve the [...]