Food Waste Focus

The problem:  Take-out customers place a unique demand on foodservice operations, requiring single-use packaging which costs operators big dollars and leads to extensive waste compared to reusable alternatives. For years there weren’t many good solutions to this problem. The good news: Some operators (specifically, those with repeat customers and warewashing capabilities) can reduce this take-out [...]

The American Hospital Association just unveiled a new web site designed to educate hospital CEO’s and trustees about sustainability in healthcare.   Titled the “Executive Primer on Hospital Environmental Sustainability” the site includes overviews of several topic areas, including Food. The food section of the web site discusses waste as one of the key trends [...]

What if trash cans didn’t exist?    If they simply weren’t there.  What if the concept of waste was entirely foreign? The infrastructure for handling waste (hauling, tipping, landfilling) is a relatively modern concept.  Once upon a time, not that long ago, people kept and reused most things and dealt locally with the residuals.  For many [...]

(This article recently appeared in the July 6, 2010 On-line Issue of Food Management magazine) This Practice Can be Part of a Recycling Program, But Many Restrictions Apply. According to the FDA, kitchen waste may be fed to livestock, but there are regulations and restrictions that apply, and a food service establishment that wants to [...]

Salad Bar: A thorny issue When starting a tracking/prevention program, it’s often the salad bar items them can be targeted early for an easy win. Why? Many cafe operations deem the salad bar easy to do, you set it up, keep it full and then throw it away.  It’s often not till we start tracking these [...]

Jill Scott is the Assistant Director of Food Services at Ohio Health’s Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio where she has served for four years. She previously was with Ohio State University in the Hospitality Management Program and in Campus Dining Services. Initial Expectations The team at Riverside has been using the LeanPath system since [...]

Have you read this great article yet?  It was in the June 2010 issue of Food Mangement.  It takes a good look at composting: how is compost created, what are the space requiremnts and is it realistic at your facility. Check it out: http://food-management.com/business_topics/management/composting-solutions-garbage-gold-0610/

Not everyone uses the same words when they talk about food waste. Some refer to “waste” while others say “food residuals” “food surplus” “food scraps” or “organic waste.” The word choice often varies based on the relationship of the speaker to the food: for example, one chef might see overproduction and call it “food waste” [...]