This Practice Can be Part of a Recycling Program, But Many Restrictions Apply.

In fact, food waste prevention ranks at the very top of the EPAs food waste recovery hierarchy, well above other strategies including food recovery and composting. While each of these other elements are definitely valuable, waste prevention delivers the greatest benefits by far.

For example, by preventing and minimizing food waste:

• You save money. By controlling production and wasting less food, you purchase less or redeploy dollars toward higher priorities.

• You save staff time by being more efficient and not producing items you dont need.

• You save disposal costs by having less food waste volume and weight to haul away.

• You reduce resource demands on agricultural producers, allowing them to use less fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide and fuel.

• You reduce and avoid greenhouse gas emissions and toxicity from food waste downstream at landfills.

With powerful impact, why doesnt food waste prevention get more attention?

There are three reasons:

• Waste prevention isn’t visible or touchable. It’s hard to explain how the absence of something represents a huge victory when people generally want to see things in front of them.

• Some people don’t think they have much food waste or, if they do acknowledge it, believe they can’t do much to improve the situation. Of course, the reality is that every operation has actionable food waste and every operation has a chance to improve.

• Operators and consultants want to attack waste but they dont have any tools in their toolkit for waste prevention. The answer is simple and easy: the key to waste prevention is daily food waste tracking.

“We manage the things we measure.” By tracking food waste every day, you focus staff behavior and collect information to spot problems and opportunities.

Finally, food waste tracking and reporting gives you information that makes prevention highly visible and clearly illustrates the scope of the problem and the positive changes over time. Learn more about LeanPath food waste tracking systems: www.leanpath.com

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

Portland, Ore. -

LeanPath® proudly announces the introduction of WasteLOGGER, a software solution for food waste tracking that helps any restaurant, hotel, caterer, or foodservice operation prevent, minimize and avoid pre-consumer food waste (which includes overproduction, spoilage, expiration, trim waste). The software runs on existing computers and does not require specialized tracking equipment. WasteLOGGER was previewed at the 2010 National Restaurant Show in Chicago and will be available commercially in Summer 2010.

Food Waste Tracking: Best Practice in Waste Prevention

Food waste management is a core element of any strategy for sustainable foodservice operations and represents a significant opportunity to enhance efficiency and save resources.

“The EPA’s food waste management hierarchy prioritizes source reduction as the critical first step and best practice in food waste management” says Andrew Shakman, President and Co-Founder of LeanPath, Inc. “And the key to source reduction is daily food waste tracking – without daily information you have no way to diagnose food waste, create awareness, or begin to measure progress.”

Green recognition and certification programs (including the NRA’s Greener Restaurants Program and Green Seal’s GS-46 Standard for Green Restaurant and Foodservice Operations) both identify food waste auditing and tracking as a core best practice in any waste management effort.

Food waste is one of the most expensive hidden costs in any restaurant and foodservice operation. Food waste tracking is the simple, easy, and effective antidote. By tracking waste daily, operators can save 2-4%+ on food purchases, while also saving on disposal and labor costs and operating greener facilities.

LeanPath’s Family of Food Waste Tracking Solutions:

For Volume Foodservice & Hospitality: The patented ValuWaste® Automated System, a rugged touch-screen terminal and bench scale used to track food waste 24-7 in volume foodservice operations.

For Other Restaurants & Foodservice: LeanPath WasteLOGGER, a PC-based software tool to track food waste in small to medium-sized restaurant and foodservice operations as well as mobile catering operations, without the need for specialized tracking equipment.

About LeanPath, Inc.

Founded in 2004, LeanPath pioneered food waste tracking and offers several product solutions. Together, LeanPath WasteLOGGER and the ValuWaste System allow restaurants and foodservice operations of all sizes to select the right tools to meet their tracking and auditing needs for food waste.Contact: LeanPath, Inc. (www.leanpath.com) is a technology company providing food waste tracking systems to the restaurant and foodservice industry. LeanPath partners with leading foodservice organizations at sites in more than 24 U.S. states with customers including ARAMARK, Sodexo, Compass Group, and MGM Mirage. For additional information about LeanPath or its products contact the company by e-mail at info@leanpath.com or by phone at (877) 620-6512.

To view the press release from the LeanPath website:  http://www.leanpath.com/releases.shtml
Contact: Carolyn Burleigh, Carolyn.Burleigh@gmail.com or 503/381-1095

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This link will take you to the presentation for “ABC’s of Food Waste Management: Reduction and Diversion“:  http://www.leanpath.com/docs/LeanPath_NRA_ABCs_Food_Waste.pdf

This is the last of the three presentations.

This link will take you to the presentation for “Food Waste Tracking: What you need to know“:  http://www.leanpath.com/docs/LeanPath_NRA_Food_Waste_Tracking.pdf

Next week will post the last of the three presentations.

This link will take you to the presentation for “Emerging Trends in Food Waste Management“:  http://www.leanpath.com/docs/LeanPath_NRA_EmergingTrends.pdf

Over the next few weeks we will post the other two presentations.

The software is called WasteLOGGER and it’s designed for operations with lower volumes of production and food waste than those that use our fully automated system called ValuWaste.   WasteLOGGER will allow people to track waste using specially designed forms and then easily enter it into WasteLOGGER in order to get all the benefits of dynamic reporting and analysis from software.    More info: LeanPath Media Advisory – 2010 NRA Show.

We’re really excited about this because now we will have the ability to help operations of all sizes prevent, avoid and reduce food waste!

The product will be previewed at the NRA show and available in July.  If you’re interested in learning more, please let us know by visiting the Contact Us link on the LeanPath web site.

Many operators have menus that stay mostly the same day-to-day while others run cycle menus and specials that create regular change.  Regardless of which type of menu you have, it’s very useful to review waste by day of the week.  This step can reveal waste issues that vary day-to-day due to variances in staffing, customers, schedules, and modes of operation.  Once you see a day with a waste spike, you can drill into it and figure out why its occurring.

For example, an operator reviewed a Waste by Day of Week report (they use an automated waste tracking system that provides this type of report with click of the button) and discovered that Wednesday was the day with the most waste – by a wide margin.

They then drilled into the detailed information for Wednesday and found that their waste was coming from all stations other than “Expo Cooking”.  (This is an action station that does ‘made to order’ dishes.)  They realized the Expo Cooking program (which occurred only on Wednesday and drew 600+ orders) was drawing customers away from the standing menu items at other stations and leading to much more waste at those stations.  Solution?  The chef adjusted production forecasts for the other stations on Wednesday and brought waste down dramatically.

Click here to view this report:  http://www.leanpath.com/nwsltr/fff6/dayweek.htm

Take a look at your stations, product mix, sales and especially your waste tracking sheets.  What do you see happening from day to day?  What is the reason for this?  Can something be changed to reduce the amount of waste occurring on the ‘high’ day?

We mention these holidays, because they are fun (of course!), but also because incorporating these dates into your menu can help to reduce food waste by finding a ‘planned reuse’ opportunity.  Plan ahead, freeze/store the overproduced items or trim, then use them on the designated holiday.  If you like a particular holiday – celebrate it more often, quarterly or even monthly.

For example:
April

National Bake Week Begins First Monday – Use any leftover items to make creative new products.   For example:

April 7: Coffee Cake Day – play with your usual recipe for coffee cake.  Use granola for topping, add nuts, chocolate chips, sliced fruit. Maybe you can sell a slice of Coffee Cake with cup of coffee – at a special discount price for both?

April 11: National Cheese Fondue Day – This one might require a little effort in the weeks before.  Collect and use all the end pieces of cheese – from the deli, grill, catering or other stations.  Melt and combine with herbs and a little bit of flour for a classic fondue.  For the ‘dippers’ – use day old bread or bagels cut into cubes, bagel chips, pretzel pieces, and vegetable sticks.  The fondue and dippers can be sold as one item, separately or by the pound.   Sell fondue in ounce cups with lids.

May

National Barbeque Month – This has endless possibilities be creative.  Here are just a few:

Coffee Rub for Barbeque

We found this recipe as well as many other by just searching for “Coffee BBQ” on the internet.  NOTE: You will need to adjust the quantity and proportions to fit the usual foodservice volume. This recipe comes from:  http://www.ineedcoffee.com/07/coffee-bbq/

Mix all ingredients well and apply generously to most cuts of pork. Pat into meat well before grilling or smoking. We like to use it on baby backs or pork spareribs. This rub also works for pork loin and pork chops on the grill.

Remember the recipe above is a guideline. Don’t be afraid to experiment with other ingredients like rosemary, ginger, cinnamon, or nutmeg. Get Creative!