Food Waste Focus

      LeanPath coaches speak with clients on a regular basis.  Often we learn new information that can help others reduce waste and we like to share those Hints and Tips with you: Avoiding Pizza Dough Prep Waste: Improper proofing is a major driver of pizza dough waste.  Chefs should periodically review the preparation procedures for pizza [...]

I just returned from the 21st national conference for HFM (National Society for Healthcare Food Management).  HFM is a vibrant organization which is consolidating with ASHFSA, an equally energetic group.  Together, they are becoming the Association for Healthcare Foodservice. At this final HFM conference in Indian Wells, California,  they offered a general session on best-practice ideas to manage costs.  [...]

Hey folks! Just attended a good training webinar for the NEW Re-Trac program from WasteWise.  Re-Trac is a great program that can be used by any type of operation to “collect, organize, analyze and report” all recycling and waste.  Re-Trac is a web-based system that allows an operator to track many different types of waste:  [...]

Training is a critical element of foodservice success- we know that well-trained staff leads to quality, efficiency, safety, and guest satisfaction. But how much training are we offering foodservice managers on sustainability or best practices for waste management?  The answer is: not much.  I recently had the chance to present at a training program for [...]

When speak with many chefs in bulk production environments, they often mentionone of their top waste management challenges is predicting demand.  They don’t know how many people will eat today, and so it’s difficult to manage production levels. I agree this is a significant challenge and there is no single answer for how to resolve it.   [...]

Hey everyone: These are two great articles from “Food Management” magazine, April 2009.  Andrew recently blogged about these, but here are the links to the full articles. Green Space: Scaling Back Overproduction: http://food-management.com/segments/healthcare/scaling-back-overproduction-0409/ Strategic Thinking: Always Evaluate the Cost of Doing Nothing:  http://food-management.com/business_topics/equipment/always-evaluate-cost-0409/

I was in a large foodservice operation recently when a veteran foodservice worker called me aside.  She had been working in cold prep for years (making grab-and-go sandwiches, salades, etc.) and frequently heard about other workers throwing away her products prematurely.  She explained to me what happened at her facility and it was, unfortunately, a [...]

Jim Matorin, a Foodservice Marketing Catalyst, recently blogged about the power of the “status quo” and how difficult it is for foodservice to pursue change.  It’s a good point and applies directly to food waste – the very first thing foodservice operators need to do is acknowledge that waste is a problem and deserves more [...]

I just returned from the ASHFSA National Conference (American Society of Healthcare Foodservice Administrators).  Conference attendees — who are primarily foodservice directors in hospitals and long-term care facilities — could attend a four-part series on foodservice sustainability which included a 90-minute session on Waste Management Best Practices (I was the moderator of the session).  Many [...]

On this blog we talk about Waste Tracking.  Mostly about Food Waste Tracking.  But there are a others kinds of waste that we could be tracking like water or energy.  In almost every building, the foodservice area uses the most energy and has many opportunities to reduce that energy footprint. The folks at Energy Star [...]