There are three big reasons the buffet is a key source of food waste.
First, it’s challenging to match supply and demand in an all-you-care-to-eat format. The default is overproduction: better to have too much on display than disappoint a customer with too little.
Second, a buffet has to be aggressively merchandised. Half empty pans and blank spots on the line kill the look of a bountiful buffet.
And third, when faced with that bounty, customers have a hard time gauging their own appetite and will often simply take more than they can eat, leading to excessive plate waste.
The good news is that you don’t have to sacrifice customer satisfaction or the visual appeal of a buffet to dramatically cut food waste. Pulling best practices gleaned from LeanPath’s decade-plus experience in food waste prevention, as well as intelligence from The World Wildlife Fund and The Rockefeller Foundation, we offer a new, free whitepaper for chefs and managers.
