LeanPath just received a very nice write up from Christina Williams at Sustainable Business Oregon.  The article talks about the new product from LeanPath, called WasteLOGGER.

http://sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2010/06/leanpath_launches_food_waste_tracking_software.html

It’s an excellent summary of the challenges facing volume foodservice operators.   We developed these additional thoughts in response to Helene’s article:

As Helene’s comments suggest, food waste from volume kitchens is an often overlooked problem that truly plagues our foodservice & restaurant industries. LeanPath’s data shows that 4-10% of the food purchased by operators becomes waste before it ever reaches a guests plate. Given the massive scale of the out-of-home food market (over $550B in sales), the economic and environmental significance of such food waste is staggering.

Our team at LeanPath has spent the last six years coaching chefs on how to minimize kitchen food waste. While our data shows the primary waste culprits are overproduction, expiration, spoilage and trim waste, making changes in a kitchen to address this can be difficult at first. Chefs live in a very complex world: customer demand levels are often uncertain, customer preferences sometimes difficult to predict, and commercial kitchens are like factories tasked with producing 1000-2000 different products each month (not easy!).

But the problem can be controlled, with a systemic, process-based approach. The key enabling step is to track food waste on a daily basis (as Helene cites in Bon Appetit’s study).

By collecting data and creating feedback loops, chefs and managers have an opportunity to focus staff behavior on the food waste issue and capture insightful and actionable information. Once people are paying attention and getting a daily scorecard about waste, that effort catalyzes many diverse creative ideas and changes that — collectively – can reduce kitchen waste dramatically.

The process of daily tracking is simple; the win from both an economic and environmental perspective is profound.

When chefs talk about “utilization”, they’re usually referring to finding a “profitable or practical use” for the food they purchase.

The most obvious use is within the menu item for which the food was purchased. But often there is more food purchased than ultimately is required for its intended purpose (due to forecasting issues, excess purchasing, or overproduction). In these cases, chefs must use judgment and creativity to get value from that food before it expires: this is a “utilization.”

For example, a chef might say “I found a utilization for these cooked carrots” meaning they were put toward a secondary use in soup, stew or pot pie filling. Utilization (when practiced with full regard to food safety considerations) is not only a practical use, but profitable because you found a valuable use for what would otherwise become food waste.

Excerpt from LeanPath’s Food Waste Flyer Volume 6  http://www.leanpath.com/lpweb/newsletter_vol_6.htm

Ziploc is a company that for many years has promoted their products as keeping your food fresh, longer.  But now they have created a new commercial that talks about the financial perils of not storing food properly.  In their latest commercial they have several scenes where the actors  buy twice as much food – then THROW IT AWAY!  A women at the deli counter asks for 4 pounds of steak, “but only wrap 2 pounds.  I’m just going to throw the rest away anyway! Ha Ha”  Or the scene with a man grilling hamburgers and hot dogs; he flips over two burgers, then flips the third into the garbage (so nonchalant).  Shocking!

I was shocked when I first saw this commercial.  First, because the scenes are so shocking in the blatant waste of food.  Second, because LeanPath is in the business of helping kitchen track food waste and now a large, commercial company is saying exactly the same thing that we are.  Food waste is a big problem and most of it stems from buying and cooking more food than we need. Hopefully these startling commercials will shock the public into really looking at what they are throwing away and the financial impact of it.

A lot of money is wasted by buying too much food without proper storage or a plan of use and reuse.  (Reuse is just another term for ‘finding something to do with leftovers, or uncooked food’.)  Not surprisingly, Ziploc has a ‘Shelf Life 101‘ section on their website.  It’s a helpful tool for determining how long a food item can be stored in the fridge or freezer.  Also helpful – what should not be frozen.  It’s a helpful tool for those ‘can I still eat this’ questions.  Here’s a TIP:  When storing an item – put the purchase date on the container AND the use by date.  So when you look in the freezer at the baggie that says ‘bacon’ and is dated 12/28/09 – 1/28/10 you know it has to be tossed out (or composted, preferably).

Referring both to conservative purchases and storage – one of the grocery store chains in the UK has created a “buy one now, get one later” campaign.  Based on the very popular BOGOF ‘buy one get one free’, these are designed to help customers get the best deals – and also not waste food.  Buy one item now and then get a coupon for the ‘one later’.  The coupon allows the shopper to get that same item – free – within two weeks of the original purchase.  The customer can still get the discounted pricing but doesn’t have to find storage (fridge/freezer) for that item – or worse, throw it out because it has gone bad.  It’s a great idea to help shoppers stretch their budget, not waste food, and build customer loyalty.

The world is moving forward.  More and more businesses are promoting their waste reduction strategies as the next level of ‘greening’ their business.  It’s nice to see that these tactics are also helping the average consumer.

Sometimes it takes an example like this to help everyone get a grasp on the true volume of food waste.  A single item, filling up a familiar space…

Food Rescue: the practice of safely retrieving edible food that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it to those in need.

Why is this important? 90% of low-income households with at least one child under the age of 12 use food pantries and soup kitchens and also participate in the School Lunch Program.  At least 20% of America’s food goes to waste each year, with an estimated 130 pounds of food per person ending up in landfills, which is about $31 billion. But the real story is that roughly 49 million people could have been fed by those lost resources. (Source: USDA)

Consider participating in a food recovery program in your operation.  For more information, contact Food Donation Connection.

An Australian e-newsletter, Inside Waste Weekly spoke about the sheer amount of waste produced in their country.

Research by The Australia Institute shows Australians are dumping $5.2 billion worth of food annually. That exceeds the amount consumers spend annually on digital equipment such as flat screen TVs, and would be enough to meet the shortfall in the United Nations Emergency Relief Fund.

That is astonishing.  They waste more food than what is spent on electronics?  The amount of food wasted by just one country could fill the Relief Fund?  Amazing.

A 2004 University of Arizona study concluded that America wastes nearly half of its food.  (Half?  That seems like a huge number!)  However, this study includes food waste from farms and production facilities that never gets to a consumer.  On average, US households waste 14 percent of their food purchases. Fifteen percent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened.  Household food waste is approximately $43 billion annually.

A recent article about food waste in Britain states that they waste $20 billion in consumable food and drink each year.  The annual weight of this food waste is about 6.6 billion tons.  These numbers are based on a recent British study on food waste.  The study is 95 pages and shows different food categories by ‘breakdown by avoidability’ and ‘breakdown by reason for disposal’.

But what about the breakdown of waste – what is actually thrown away?

Fruit and vegetables make up the bulk of wasted food at $1.1 billion, followed by restaurant and take away food that is bought but left unfinished, and $872.5 million worth of fresh meat and fish thrown out every year. – Australia

Have you ever done that?  Bought something at the grocery store and didn’t eat it, or forgot you had it, then threw it away – completely untouched.  How many doggie bags have I brought home with the good intentions of eating the rest tomorrow, or taking it to lunch – but it just sits in my refrigerator until I ‘remember’ its there.  Then, it’s too late.  It’s turned bad.

Both the Australian and British articles quote surveys saying the even though consumers know how to avoid wasting food, their actions often don’t match their thinking.  I think most of us in US are the same way.  We know the best thing to do is to plan weekly menus, take a shopping list, make plans to reuse leftovers.  Unfortunately, we don’t do this.

Right now there is a huge push to collect food waste and compost it.  This can be done either at home or through your local trash hauler or compost facility.  Is this the best answer? If we continue to waste at this rate, can we compost all of this food waste?

The first and best thing we can do is REDUCE the amount of food we purchase/discard.  By reducing food waste at the source, we will have less waste overall.  We won’t need to source new landfills or build costly new recycle/compost facilities.  So, plan out those weekly menus, make a shopping list and stick to it.

REUSE.  Look for creative ways to use leftovers like this article: 50 ways to never waste food again We’ve blogged about this article before, but it’s work mentioning again.

The next best thing we do is to RECYCLE/compost any food waste that couldn’t be reduced.  Check with your local trash hauler or compost facility.  Try www.findacomposter.com Do they charge extra for food waste vs. yard waste?  Can you get credits for composting?  After the material has been fully composted, can you purchase back a bag for your garden? (or get it at a discounted rate, or better yet – free?)

All good things to think about.  Remember the saying “Reduce Reuse Recycle“?  It applies to food waste too…

We ran across this fun ‘tips’ video. It’s a series of quick interviews with a few famous food personalities and some regular people talking about great (and quick!) ideas to reduce food waste in your home – or large foodservice operation. Check it out.

http://su.pr/2CN57u

]]> http://blog.leanpath.com/2009/10/easy-ways-to-prevent-food-waste/feed/ 0 http://blog.leanpath.com/2009/10/invisible-upstream-food-waste/ http://blog.leanpath.com/2009/10/invisible-upstream-food-waste/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:54:37 +0000 Andrew Shakman http://blog.leanpath.com/?p=764 We tend to focus on the food waste we can see in our operations.  It’s dramatic, and often deeply disappointing.  What we can’t see as clearly is the food wasted before it ever reaches us:  at the farm, during processing, during transit.

We only get to see the food which survives the supply chain.  Whenever we or our guest throws something away there may have been 1-10X+ the weight of that item in “invisible” waste upstream from your operation.    

To help understand the amount of upstream climate impact embedded in every food item, Sweden is now experimenting with climate labeling.  They are printing climate impact information on lables - just like nutrition content.  The data is based on lifecycle analysis so it addresses systemic issues including production inputs, transportation, and upstream waste. 

The NY Times reports that using climate change data to to adjust diets and menus would make a significant difference on greenhouse gas emissions:

Yet if the new food guidelines were religiously heeded, some experts say, Sweden could cut its emissions from food production by 20 to 50 percent. An estimated 25 percent of the emissions produced by people in industrialized nations can be traced to the food they eat, according to recent research here. And foods vary enormously in the emissions released in their production.

Read the full NY Times Article: To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates

Exit the pigs, enter large volumes of decomposing food waste strewn throughout the city.

Is there a lesson for foodservice operators in this story?  I think so.  We, as foodservice and hospitality operators, have become so reliant on municipal and commercial waste management solutions that we take them for granted.  We assume there will always be someone there to accept the food waste we generate.  This may not always be true.

Indeed, there are people and companies who believe food waste will be prevented by regulation from going to landfills in the U.S. within the next decade.  Where will foodservice operators send their food waste then?

The answer is that we will have to be creative and develop source reduction programs (using proven practices such as food waste tracking), donation programs, and waste-to-energy or composting solutions.   In fact, it’s likely our future waste management vendors and partners will look very different from the companies and services we are using today for food waste.

As the Egyptians have learned, discarding food waste in a sanitary manner is not a “right”.   It’s the outcome of careful thought and design.  There has to be a system in place to handle that waste or else you have nothing but a big mess.  

As foodservice operators think about the future, we have a chance to carefully design and envision a world of “zero food waste.”   This doesn’t mean we won’t generate any waste.   However, it does mean that through a combination of source reduction and diversion (i.e. composting, donation), we can send zero food waste to the landfill at the end of the day.  Simply stated, we will have to put all our food waste to its highest and best use.