Food Waste Focus

You’ve seen it many times. A customer leaves a large quantity of uneaten food on his or her plate and you have to throw it away. You think: if I’d only served them a smaller portion, there would have been much less waste. But you remind yourself that customers want big portions, they perceive them as [...]

Northern Arizona University (NAU) began using the LeanPath System in late June 2012, installing automated tracking systems in both of their dining halls. LeanPath sat down with executive chef Timothy Cunningham to learn more about their experience with the system and changes they’ve made to reduce food waste in their kitchens. Tell me a little [...]

Chef Jared Prows has been executive chef at St. Mary’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado, for three years. St. Mary’s Hospital is part of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System (SCLHS), a non-profit, faith-based system with 16 locations. They currently utilize the LeanPath Food Waste Tracking System at seven [...]

Last month I had the opportunity to write an article that appeared in the December issue of Food Management Magazine. The article, entitled Steps to Cut Pre-Consumer Food Waste, spoke to many of the strategies our LeanPath clients are practicing each and every day to significantly reduce their environmental footprint and boost their bottom line. [...]

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I explored merchandising and food safety pressures that can lead to preventable waste. In this final article of the series, I’ll look at the misconception that over-producing can help save on labor costs. Controlling labor costs is a top concern for foodservice leaders. But many times, [...]

In Part 1 of this series, I explored the merchandising pressures that many times equate to more food waste. In this second article of the series, I’ll look at food safety protocols and how these critical requirements interact with food waste reduction efforts. Before going any further, I want to make one thing clear: food [...]

Food waste is a global problem of breathtaking scope. A third of all food globally is wasted. And within the U.S. it’s even worse: 40% of food is not eaten—a 50% rise from the 1970s. As foodservice operators, many of us are trying to get upper management to focus on this issue and do something [...]

40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. It’s a statistic we hear far too often in our industry. And it’s the enormity of the food waste problem that led Dana Gunders of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to author a new issue paper titled “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up [...]

Most foodservice operators throw away 4-10% of the food they purchase before it even reaches a plate. What are the drivers behind all of this waste? When we took a closer look, we uncovered some of the common pressures. In this article, I’ll take a closer look at one of them: merchandising. More is better [...]

At LeanPath, we’re advocates for food waste prevention. However, even with systems in place to measure and prevent waste, some food scraps are inevitable. But those scraps don’t have to be trash-bound. A start-up company in the Pacific Northwest is offering the industry another new way to keep food scraps out of the trash and [...]