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

CARROT, CELERY AND FENNEL LEAVES Mix small amounts, finely chopped, with parsley as a garnish or in salsa verde: all are in the Umbelliferae family of plants. Taste for bitterness when deciding how much to use.

CHARD OR COLLARD RIBS Simmer the thick stalks in white wine and water with a scrap of lemon peel until tender, then drain and dress with olive oil and coarse salt. Or bake them with cream, stock or both, under a blanket of cheese and buttery crumbs, for a gratin.

CITRUS PEEL Organic thin-skinned peels of tangerines or satsumas can be oven-dried at 200 degrees, then stored to season stews or tomato sauces.

CORN COBS Once the kernels are cut off, simmer the stripped cobs with onions and carrots for a simple stock. Or add them to the broth for corn or clam chowder.

MELON RINDS Cut off the hard outer peels and use crunchy rinds in place of cucumber in salads and cold soups.

PEACH LEAVES Steep in red wine, sugar and Cognac to make a summery peach-bomb aperitif. (According to David Lebovitz’s recipe, the French serve it on ice.)

POTATO PEELS Deep-fry large pieces of peel in 350-degree oil and sprinkle with salt and paprika. This works best with starchy potatoes like russets.

YOUNG ONION TOPS Wash well, coarsely chop and cook briefly in creamy soups or stews, or mix into hot mashed potatoes.

TOMATO LEAVES AND STEMS Steep for 10 minutes in hot soup or tomato sauces to add a pungent garden-scented depth of tomato flavor. Discard leaves after steeping.

TOMATO SCRAPS Place in a sieve set over a bowl, salt well and collect the pale red juices for use in gazpacho, Bloody Marys or risotto.

TURNIP, CAULIFLOWER OR RADISH LEAVES Braise in the same way as (or along with) collards, chards, mustard greens or kale.

WATERMELON SEEDS Roast and salt like pumpkinseeds.

According to the article, the American Biogas Council estimates the US could generate, at the high end of its capacity, 10-15% of natural gas supply from biogas by 2030.  While this number is not going to replace other sources of natural gas, it’s significant particularly when viewed alongside other benefits from biogas:

“It’s a multi-solution,” says Nora Goldstein, a council board member and the editor of Biocycle, a trade publication. By being both a waste-disposal and energy-production system, she says, “it addresses multiple urban and rural infrastructure challenges.” It uses an overlooked fuel source, it localizes the production of energy, it produces useful by-products such as fertilizer, and it doesn’t require new, purpose-built facilities. “When you just look at the potential energy output,” she says, “that kind of gets lost.”

So what does this mean for foodservice operators?

Food waste will become an increasingly valuable commodity in the future as an energy source.  Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to partner with biogas companies that want to do more than just landfill or compost your food waste.

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 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 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.

Read the CBS Story

Although the challenges described in the CBS story are not at the same scale as those faced by commercial foodservice operations, some of the same solutions apply.  For example, just like folks at home, volume foodservice operators need to be careful to purchase only what they need and rotate inventories to avoid spoilage.

The story also featured comments by Jonathan Bloom, author of the new book American Wasteland.  This is an important new book which addresses the full scope of the food waste problem and also what can be done about it.  Get more information on the book here.

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

Initial Expectations

The team at Riverside has been using the LeanPath system since June 2009. When they started the program they were hopeful that it would be able to reduce their food costs and waste. “This is especially important considering the current economic climate and the continued drive to do more with less. The system has allowed us to identify some products that were in need of replacement or general system improvement around their production.”

Experience with Waste Tracking

Her overall impression: “[LeanPath's] ValuWaste is great. It helps to raise the awareness for the associates and gives them a chance to contribute ideas to improve the operation. That is an aspect that we pride ourselves in as an organization, so it fit in with our culture. Another component that she enjoys about the LeanPath system, “It is very efficient to process the data and gain action steps so that keeps it achievable”.

“I think it is the right tool for the job. Prior to this, we were manually tracking waste which was very time consuming”. Because of the detailed reports, Jill was able to see how much food was being wasted due to expiration. “With The Joint Commission expectations on holding times, we need to utilize any remaining products or split cases quickly and safely. With an operation of our size, these items were adding up quickly”. She feels that when you look at what a wasted item costs in a week and then take the time to annualize it, you can really see the impact this has on your budget. (One of the features of ValuWaste Advantage 4 is a dashboard that shows how much food is wasted per week and what that adds up to over a full year.)

Recommendations

Her advice to managers new to the LeanPath system is to stay consistent with the program so the associates stay with it. “Make the information a part of associate meetings and recognize them for participating. We build the participation expectation into the annual evaluation review”.

Takeaways

Jill’s initial goal was to reduce food cost. Was this achieved? “When we started the program in June [2009], we were over 8% unfavorable on food cost compared to our budget. We are currently 10% favorable to budget for our YTD”.