Food Waste Intelligence

Leanpath has a team of executive chefs on staff who travel the world training kitchens on how to prevent food waste. They’re constantly collecting new ideas on best practices in food waste prevention and sharing them right here on our blog.

To celebrate Food Waste Prevention Week (April 1-7 2024) we’ve collected 10 of those posts that are bursting with tips and ideas on how foodservice teams can become more profitable and sustainable by preventing food waste. 

Dig in!

This post is part of a Leanpath culinary blog series looking at ideas for repurposing commonly overproduced menu items.

We encounter quite a lot of broccoli in foodservice operations’ waste data. Whether it be trim waste–i.e throwing away edible stalks–or overproduced cooked broccoli that is discarded, there are various innovative things kitchen teams can do to keep broccoli out of the bin and ensure its purchase value is retained. 

Broccoli has several qualities that make it the ideal ingredient to repurpose. Its sustenance and good value relative to its weight make it the perfect yield increasing ingredient to add to dishes. Broccoli’s low calorie and high nutrition and vibrant color also make it a repurposing super food which is also quick to cook, further enhancing its repurposing potential.

This post is part of a Leanpath culinary blog series looking at ideas for repurposing commonly overproduced menu items.

Leafy greens are a commonly wasted food item in many foodservice operations due to their delicate composition and short shelf life. Spoilage of leafy greens can often occur earlier than expected due to poor storage and so having a well-considered storage protocol along with a range of back up plans for repurposing can help keep your food waste of leafy greens to a minimum. Here are some creative ways to use leftover leafy greens:

Food waste prevention–the only way to address food waste that delivers triple-bottom-line benefits–requires new kitchen tools and workflows. For busy kitchens with thin margins, this rightly brings up questions – and can lead to misconceptions. 

One of the biggest myths about food waste prevention is that it takes too long. In fact, food waste tracking and the prevention it enables not only saves money, it saves time, making kitchen teams more efficient. 

Let’s dig a little deeper into this myth and get a better idea of the actual ROI on food waste tracking.

I’m Ben Murphy and I have recently joined Leanpath as a Customer Success manager and Food Waste Prevention Chef. (That's me on the left with Leanpath Executive Chef Robb White.) Having worked in various types of kitchens over a 14-year period, I have battled face on with the issue of food waste from weekend brunch to corporate catering to fine dining. I completed a Masters in Environmental Science with a focus on food sustainability in order to better understand the interconnected and multifaceted connection between mass food production and our environment. 

I am delighted to have joined Leanpath in its mission to make food waste prevention everyday practice in the world’s kitchens. I will be working closely with clients globally to help them take action against food waste by way of the data they are able to discover through tracking food waste with Leanpath. 

I have been on the road for the last three weeks visiting client kitchens, engaging with chefs, managers and leadership on the challenges they face in curtailing food waste and seeing first hand the innovative and effective methods and best practices culinary teams have put in place to repurpose food that would have otherwise gone to waste. Some of the most impressive food waste repurposing actions I encountered were: