Food Waste Intelligence

Leaders from all over the world are gathering in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, at COP27, the biggest climate event of the year. This event has critical implications for the pace and scale of necessary climate change efforts.

For the first time, food is central on the COP27 agenda, and Leanpath's VP of Sustainability & Public Affairs Steven Finn is attending and taking part in panel discussions on the topic.

A new international food waste pledge, the 123 Pledge, will also be announced at COP27. Leanpath has already signed on, committing to work with our client partners to prevent an amount of food waste equivalent to 50 million meals by the end of 2025.

Since partnering with Leanpath in 2008, Sodexo has saved 9,716,393 meals from going to waste in North America. Sodexo's branded food waste reduction program, WasteWatch powered by Leanpath, allows Sodexo teams to easily capture food waste data—whether food waste is generated in the kitchen or discarded by consumers—and take action to drive cultural and behavioral change to prevent that waste from reoccurring.

With supply chain disruptions making it more difficult to get the food you need, when you need it, it's more important than ever that you're extending the shelf life of all your inventory. This is also a prime food waste reduction strategy.

Getting the longest life out of the food you purchase is always a concern in a food operation. It is essential to make sure that foods are stored properly to extend shelf life and avoid unnecessary waste and cut back on frequent orders and deliveries.

Trim waste is the second largest source of food waste in kitchens, just behind overproduction. Some trim waste is unavoidable. Regardless, it all represents a financial hit: while you may not eat an orange peel, your kitchen still paid for it. And protein trimmings are most costly than ever.

So it’s important to make sure your kitchen accumulates as little trim waste as possible.

To help with that, here are four questions to ask your kitchen manager, chef or frontline team to make sure reducing trim waste is top of mind.

Today, September 29^th, we celebrate the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, an important day which was added to the UN calendar three years ago – and we were excited to join our colleagues at the Future Food Institute in bringing this to fruition.

Three years from its creation, the need to draw attention to the scale of the food waste challenge is more important than ever.  A new report from the World Wildlife Fund, for example, notes that 40% of global food production is lost or wasted annually, with food waste alone accounting for 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

Thus, at a high level, with over 800 million hungry and myriad environmental externalities associated with food waste, responsible foodservice organizations already have strong incentive to focus on preventing the occurrence of food waste.