Institutional kitchens face a universal challenge when it comes to pre-consumer food waste. This is particularly true in culinary education environments where trial, error, and experimentation are necessary for skill development. However, a recent study conducted at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) by the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC) and Leanpath, a MCURC Research Innovation Affiliate, offers insights that extend far beyond the classroom.

This year’s ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit was full of positive energy. Perhaps because this year is the 10-year anniversary of ReFED and its groundbreaking roadmap to reduce food waste (which we wrote about back in April here). Or because of the progress we’ve made over the last decade. Or the global economy and geopolitical environment making food waste ever more important. Or all of the above.

You know the scene: food goes off-site for an event. Maybe you have a food waste tracker in your kitchen, maybe not. Regardless, there’s no way to realistically get the overproduced food back to the kitchen to be tracked. So it gets thrown away off-site: no tracking, no reporting, no accountability.

Leanpath recently crossed the threshold of 200 million pounds (91 million kg) of food waste prevented since our founding in 2004. What does 200 million pounds of food waste actually look like?