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.

A recent study in Loveland, Texas highlights just how much food is left uneaten in K-12 environments. At three local elementary schools it was found that 25% of food goes in the trash. Fruits and vegetables comprise about 50% of this waste.

Usually this is where plate waste studies stop but the Loveland school district took the investigation one step further. Comparative analysis revealed that there was a lot less waste at one of the elementary schools. At this particular school the recess break period occurs before lunch. This simple schedule variation dramatically increases the amount of fruits, vegetables, and milk that are consumed, thereby decreasing food waste.

Food waste can seem like a daunting issue but through tracking, measurement, and analysis it’s possible to identify key trends and devise effective solutions. From simple solutions, like adjusting the schedule, to food waste tracking systems, there are a variety of ways to prevent and minimize food waste.

Lori Anderson from Iowa Health St. Luke’s Hospital noted in the Des Moines Register:

“It was unbelievable the amount of food that was wasted. It might be just a little here or a little there, but it added up to be quite a bit in dollars.”

Both stories provide great studies showing how tracking food waste daily is the key to preventing and minimizing food waste:

• Des Moines Register: Program reduces food heading to the landfill
• Cedar Rapids Gazette: St. Luke’s cutting waste and saving money with a pair of food management programs

Many organizations throughout the world are studying food waste. In the UK WRAP just finished compiling a report about waste generation in the hospitality sector. They discovered that food accounts for 40% of the waste produced in these operations. Two thirds of this, or 400,000 tons, could have been eaten. According to WRAP the hospitality sector could save £724 million a year if they effectively tackled food waste.

These statistics, although staggering, aren’t limited to the UK. LeanPath finds that on average 4-10% of food purchases end up as pre-consumer waste. Not only does this waste take up landfill space and contribute to climate change but it also comes at a cost. For example a foodservice operation that spends 1 million on food annually could be throwing away $100,000 each year. With food costs on the rise it’s more important than ever to find effective ways to prevent and minimize food waste.

Preventing food waste can be a difficult task. Automated food waste tracking is one way an operation can effectively manage and prevent food waste. Production automation systems, along with donation, and composting are other steps that can be taken to manage this waste stream.

Population growth, climate change, and global economic trends will continue to push food waste to the hot seat. Those operators that take steps to prevent food waste will be better positioned to handle these increasing pressures.

Malody argues that the first step towards food waste reduction involves strategic menu design.  It is definitely possible to design a successful menu which is also streamlined to reduce food waste.   You just have to make that an explicit goal and work toward it.

Read Karen Malody’s articles on waste reducton here:

• Strategic Menu Development:  Its Impact on Waste Reduction (Part 1)
• Strategic Menu Development:  Its Impact on Waste Reduction (Part 2)

At LeanPath, we encourage our clients to focus on food waste tracking on a daily basis and then use the data they collect to drive change in three areas:  purchasing, production and menu design.   The latter one is often overlooked, unfortunately.  These articles point operators in the right direction specifically on strategic menu development.

For more information, contact Karen Malody at Culinary Options .   You can also reach out to the Foodservice Consultant’s Society International for other consulting resources.  And LeanPath can help any existing operation take the first step in waste reduction for with  food waste tracking.

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 story explains how Iowa Health has used automated food waste tracking systems to reduce food waste significantly.

This story supports a core principal of waste management:  prevention and minimization should be our top priorities.  To achieve these goals, we need lots of good data, otherwise we don’t know what to fix or whether our fixes are actually working.  For this reason, automated food waste tracking systems (such as those from LeanPath) are playing an ever more important role in foodservice operations.

The hospital team learned so much from their experience reducing waste that they could respond easily when the asked for strategies that consumers could use at home to reduce food waste.

How has Iowa Health tackled source reduction of food waste?

By implementing automated food waste tracking systems from LeanPath, recording pre-consumer food waste data every day.  Iowa Health uses this data to tighten menus, production procedures and purchasing, thereby minimizing and preventing as much food waste as possible.

Iowa Health just published a case study in their in-house magazine titled Hospital Chefs Trimming Costs at the Cutting Board.   Read the article to learn how high volume foodservice operators can make a significant dent in food waste by tracking food waste as a regular, ongoing part of their business.

The author is journalist Laurie Wiegler and the piece is titled “Whittling Away at Food Waste.“   It covers a range of contributing factors that cause food waste in restaurants.  It also highlights solutions, including food waste tracking.

One section of the article refers to LeanPath and notes that our company has historically served volume foodservice operators.  This is very true, but we are proud to have announced this year, in 2010, the creation of WasteLOGGER, a new software product which provides food waste tracking capabilities at a price point and ROI level that works for almost every restaurant.  Now any foodservice or restaurant operator can track food waste easily with the goal of preventing and reducing overall food waste levels.