Food Waste Focus

I was speaking with a foodservice operator last week and she described a familiar challenge:  she’s in the process of building a new facility and is trying to figure out the best way to handle food waste from end-to-end. My response was to look at the waste hierarchy first and make sure she has programs [...]

As a follow-up to my recent summary on the environmental profile of garbage disposers, I wanted to share news from the South Bayside System Authority.  This agency provides wastewater treatment services to a good chunk of the San Francisco Peninsula in California.  Interestingly, they have concluded that use of garbage disposers  to handle food waste provides [...]

I just learned of a new book that will be published soon by Tristram Stuart titled “Uncovering the Global Food Scandal.”   You can read a review from the UK or wait for publication in the US in October, 2009.  Here is the publisher’s description: The true cost of what the global food industry throws away. The world [...]

As people increasingly recognize that food waste should not be going into landfills (due to methane production, among other issues), a number of alternatives are getting greater attention.  I recently learned about a company that has prototyped a system to feed food waste to the larvae of black soldier flies.  The flies eat about 95% [...]

Last week I toured the InSinkErator plant in Racine, Wisconsin.  It’s the site where most consumer and foodservice garbage disposers are manufactured in North America.  The facility is an impressive feat of industrial engineering, but I was there mainly to ask questions about the environmental profile of garbage disposers. Over the years, garbage disposers have [...]

Long ago, many restaurants and foodservice operations collected food in “pig buckets” and sent it to nearby swine farms to feed the animals. However, the Swine Health Protection Act (SHPA) was passed by Congress in 1980.  The act regulates any food waste containing meat that is served to swine: In accordance with the SHPA and Federal [...]

We ran across this excellent post recently and thought you might like to see this.  A Boston area poultry farm has started thinking outside of the box (or coop)… Silverbrook Farms: Your Waste is our Treasure! Food waste (excluding poultry products) can be used to feed our hens – providing eggs, meat and fertilizer!   It’s [...]

Training is a critical element of foodservice success- we know that well-trained staff leads to quality, efficiency, safety, and guest satisfaction. But how much training are we offering foodservice managers on sustainability or best practices for waste management?  The answer is: not much.  I recently had the chance to present at a training program for [...]