This fall Cal Dining launched a food waste prevention project in conjunction with Stop Waste. Using LeanPath systems Cal Dining has seen a significant reduction in waste. By the end of fall semester they achieved a 35% reduction in pre-consumer (kitchen) food waste

According to Associate Director of Residential Dining, Chuck Davies “Once you pay close attention to your food prep routines and which ones result in the largest amounts of kitchen waste, it’s pretty easy to make changes that really affect the bottom line. Since the program started last August, we have reduced kitchen waste by over a third.” A one third savings in food waste translates to cost savings. To date Cal Dining has avoided $1,600 in food purchases every week by literally keeping dollars out of the trash can.

When the spring semester starts later this month Cal Dining will continue to fine-tune their operations to further prevent pre-consumer food waste.

Click here to learn more about the Cal Dining- Stop Waste partnership.

This summer the LeanPath system has been embraced by a number of universities throughout the country. Using LeanPath these schools expect to save 2-4% on food costs and reduce pre-consumer food waste by 50%. With food costs on the rise, and school starting again, now is the time to reduce food waste at the source and cut costs.

Starches a sticky issue

When starting a tracking/prevention program, it’s often the starches that are one of the highest waste items. Why? Starches (pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.) are an accompaniment to most dishes, thus are often produced in bulk while more “expensive” center of the plate items are more closely monitored.  It’s often not till we start tracking these items that operators realize how much starch waste happens daily, making it a good target for reduction.

• Monitor Production:  How much do you really use?  Often we start will full pans of starches and continue to produce full pans until the end of service.  Instead of continually keeping  pans at the ready throughout the service, prepare for the initial rush and then batch produce in smaller vessels as service winds down.  Don’t get pan tunnel vision when preparing these items, back-up can just as easily be in a half pan or smaller.
• Have a plan: Pay close attention to the sides, menus and where they can be used.  Look for opporunities to use a starch across multiple offerings.  If potatoes or rice can be spread across the menu and is not just destined for one dish, there is less likely to be large amounts of leftover.  As one station winds down have a plan in mind for moving leftover starches to other stations to use up any excess. 
• Target re-use opportunities: What can be done with the leftovers?  If the items were never put out, they can be re-dressed into future items.  Rice can be used in puddings, soups or ethnic dishes.  Noodles that were not sauces can be saved for use in salads on the salad bar, into a frittata dish or soups. Potatoes can be re-issued into soups, used as homefries, made into mash potato pancakes and one client even pureed leftover french fries for usage as a thickener.

TIPS to ZAP Waste:  A regular Food Waste Focus feature on waste reduction best practices. Return to the Food Waste Focus blog for more TIPS by searching the “Tips” tag.  Also subscribe to the Food Waste Flyer Newsletter. Both contain fresh, real-world insights on food waste management from LeanPath, the experts in food waste tracking systems.

Trayless dining highlights the impact of a food waste management plan focused on prevention. Even with the increasing prevalence of other food waste management practices, at the end of the day it comes down to the first of the three R’s. Reduction is the place to start.

Source reduction presents numerous environmental and financial benefits that can’t be realized with other food waste management practices, such as composting. One of these is the upstream life cycle impact of food waste. Food has a significant impact on the environment long before it ends up in the trash can. From cultivation to harvesting to cooking, the upstream impacts are significant. Food waste prevention also saves money on disposal costs as pounds are kept out of the waste stream.

Trayless dining is a great example of a post-consumer prevention effort; however this same concept should also be applied to pre-consumer food waste coming from the kitchen and serving line. Automated food waste tracking systems, such as those offered by LeanPath provide a method for establishing a baseline, monitoring and benchmarking progress, and driving source reduction. Pre-consumer food waste tracking allows an operator to diagnose specific issues and change production and purchasing practices accordingly. In addition, tracking enhances employee awareness, which leads to behavior change over time.

With countless advances in the field of sustainability it’s easy to lose site of the low hanging fruit related to source reduction, such as trayless dining or food waste tracking. Yet reduction is the place to start. Post and pre-consumer food waste prevention has tremendous benefits, from the bottom-line to the planet.

The US Environmental Protection Agency lists “feeding hungry people” as the second highest strategy for handling food waste (one step below source reduction).  The EPA describes the challenge:

Each year, more than 36 million Americans, in communities across the country, are making difficult choices—seniors who are forced to choose between buying food or buying medicine; parents who might feed their children but not themselves; and working families who must make the difficult decision between paying their utilities or putting food on the table. (read more from the EPA on feeding hungry people)

So what can we do about this challenge?  A recent graduate of Stanford University, Tommy Tobin, has been raising the topic of food waste and hunger and suggesting we need to raise awareness among college students as an important step.  In a recent essay on the Hunger-UnderNutrition Blog he comments:

Inspiring students to have their hearts and hands follow their stomachs brings a new generation of anti-hunger advocates into the fold, channeling new voices and ideas into our work.  (read more from Tobin’s blog Engaging Students in the Fight Against Global hunger)

Indeed, there is a large opportunity to educate the next generation about this issue while they are still students.  By doing so, we can slowly change expectations and behaviors about food waste that pervade many aspects of society and lead to higher levels of waste than may be necessary.

What does this mean for a foodservice operator?  First, if you are working in college or university dining services, you have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to play an educational role with students, going beyond just feeding them.  If you don’t happen to be providing food in an educational setting, you can evaluate your own source reduction and food donation practices as a first step.  Once you are doing your best in those areas, think about how you could lend your professional expertise or setting to help educate students about stewarding our food system responsibly.

The early findings are strong, showing almost a 30% reduction in pre-consumer food waste as a result of daily food waste tracking.

Sodexo partnered with LeanPath on this initiative. deploying LeanPath food waste tracking tools.  Eight college and university sites have been recording all pre-consumer food waste.  They have been engaging foodservice teams to use the data to identify opportunities for improvement.

Read the full story from Sodexo.

Pomona is participating — along with seven other institutions –  in a Sodexo pilot program to reduce pre-consumer food waste.  Each operation measures all pre-consumer food waste every day (using automated tracking tools from LeanPath) and then reviews the data before setting specific goals for improvement.

Each participating site also has a Stop Waste Action Team (SWAT) composed of foodservice works.  This group reviews the waste tracking data,  sets specific goals for improvement, and tests waste prevention ideas.  The most effective ideas become permanent.

Read the Pomona “Student Life” newspaper story here.

Using LeanPath automated tracking tools, the university is developing a complete profile of the food being waste in order to drive change that leads to prevention in the future.

Read the article here.

Today Sodexo expands its commitment to building a better tomorrow for the planet and its people with the launch of “Stop Wasting Food”, a campaign with one simple goal: Winning student support for cutting food waste to curb climate change.

It’s exciting that this campaign is rooted in food waste source reduction.  Specifically, on the pre-consumer side of the waste stream, Sodexo has launched a pilot program with eight college sites tracking all pre-consumer food waste every day in order measure and characterize it, with the goal of preventing, minimizing and avoiding that food waste in the future.

LeanPath is pleased to be a partner in this effort, which involves automated food waste tracking systems.

Read the full press release from Sodexo.

The good news: Some operators (specifically, those with repeat customers and warewashing capabilities) can reduce this take-out waste by offering reusable take-out containers.

I attended a presentation at the recent NACUFS conference by Audrey Copeland (G.E.T. Enterprises) and Rita Gordish (ARAMARK Higher Education) about how this is working in colleges and universities. Here’s the process:

1. The operator sells its customers reusable clambshell containers.   These should be NSF 36 certified (a dinnerware standard).  Example: G.E.T. Enterprises’ Eco-Takeout containers.
2. Customers buy a take-out meal and return the dirty (but rinsed) container to a collection station near the cashiers at the foodservice establishment.  They receive a token or card that proves they returned a takeout container
3. When the customer needs a take-out , they present their token to the server and the food is provided in a clean reusable take-out container.

This approach allows the operator to wash and sanitize the take-outs using traditional warewashing capabilities.  The customer simply needs to return the take-out and pick up a clean one or a token each time.   This closed loop system ensures all participants “buy-in” and then each effectively owns one share in the system.

To launch this type of program, operators will need to consider:

1. Policies for handling damaged containers.
2. How to respond to lost containers (offer a discounted replacement)?
3. Decide whether to eliminate other take-out alternatives or apply a surcharges for disposable take-out containers.
4. Educate customers about leakage risks – the lack of a rubber seal on some of these reusables is what allows them to meet the NSF standards. However, it can lead to liquid leakage if the container becomes inverted during transport.
5. How to track participation.  Tokens work, but new POS advances may eliminate the need for them by automating the check-in and check-out process using ID cards.
6. Drying time for these items may take a few extra minutes.
7. How to collect the dirty reusables and keep them away from clean food?  Very doable, the process just needs to be defined.

Reusable take-outs represent an exciting industry advance. They can help operators cut costs and cut waste, and the implementation is not difficult. 

Bottom line: If you have repeat take-out customers and warewashing capabilities, you should definitely consider offering a reusable take-out container program.