Food Waste Focus

Food waste is a concern for every foodservice operation. In the U.S. approximately 40% of food is wasted between the farm and the plate. Wasted food is especially troubling in K-12 operations because this means that children are missing key nutritional opportunities, well contributing to overflowing landfills. A recent study in Loveland, Texas highlights just [...]

When we think about food waste we often focus on the final stage of the life cycle, the landfill. Although keeping food waste out of the landfill is beneficial, this is just a small portion of the total environmental impact. From cultivation to disposal there are impacts throughout the entire chain. In a recent article [...]

The Iowa Health System, which cares for 2.5 million patients each year,  has been working to prevent and minimize food waste at healthcare sites across the state of Iowa.  They started over three years ago, in 2008, and have grown the effort to six hospitals spanning the state. How has Iowa Health tackled source reduction [...]

The New York Times discussed residential food waste today in the “Well” column by Tara Parker-Pope in the Health section: Why should we care about food waste? For starters, it’s expensive. Citing various studies, including one at the University of Arizona called the Garbage Project that tracked home food waste for three decades, [Author Jonathan] [...]

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Hillsboro, Oregon recently released a joint case study on waste prevention. Titled “Food Waste Prevention Case Study:  Intel Corporation’s Cafes“, the study reports on Bon Appetit Management Company’s use of LeanPath food waste tracking tools to prevent and minimize food waste at two Intel Cafes [...]

The U.S. E.P.A. recently released updates to its Food Waste Web Site.   This site is one of the very best places to learn about  issues related to food waste causes and management actions — and now it’s even better. The new changes include: revisions to the food waste recovery hierarchy to clarify the placement of [...]

When tracking food waste, it’s invaluable to compare recent weeks against each other. Using a tool we call a Comparison Report you can highlight week to week changes and identify specific areas that are getting better as well as those that have gotten worse. With ValuWaste Advantage 4, operators now have the ability to create [...]

We were pleased to exhibit at the National Restaurant show in Chicago this year (NRA 2010).  Andrew Shakman was one of the presenters at the NRA Conserve Pavilion.  He was able to give three speeches over the course of four days. This link will take you to the presentation for “Food Waste Tracking: What you need [...]

Last fall, researchers from the National Institutes of Health published a fascinating paper about food waste: The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact. I met one of the lead authors, Kevin Hall, at a forum convened by the EPA in March focused on food waste reduction and diversion. From the [...]

While the following trends are not fully here today, they’re on the horizon: Customers Demand More Information. Customers have been clamoring to understand their food better in recent years: Where did it come from? Who grew it? Is it safe? These customers expect transparency around food. This attitude will expand beyond food sourcing into the [...]