Food Waste Intelligence

Leanpath is proud to announce the evolution of food waste prevention technology. Impact Suite is a powerful new set of tools that go beyond tracking food waste to actually guiding kitchens through specific actions to reduce their largest food waste issues.

It is an exciting and eventful time in the food space. Just two weeks ago we celebrated the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, which brings further awareness to the scale of the global food waste challenge and urges individuals to take action to stop food waste “for the people, for the planet.”

And this week, on October 16^th, we celebrate another very special day on the calendar – World Food Day.

Healthcare is the most complex foodservice segment by far. Most have some mix of retail foodservice, catering, physician dining, other services like day care, and, of course, patient feeding with its clinical demands. Perhaps as a result of the complexity, healthcare foodservice, compared to other segments, also sees the highest rates of food waste, based on Leanpath data.

All facets of the foodservice industry have been affected by COVID-19, including food suppliers. The vendor partners we get our meats, seafood, and produce from are also seeing significant challenges as demand for products has reduced and supply in some areas is excessively high. The problem is, because demand is reduced, suppliers have more product on hand. This can sometimes lead to deliveries coming later in the window of freshness, which increases the risk of food waste. This is creating two issues: one, kitchens have to retrain their staff on inspecting produce; and two, operators need to figure out ways to use produce faster when they do get poor quality.

If you want your work addressing food waste to have the biggest impact on greenhouse gas emissions, prevent food waste to begin with, don’t rely on anaerobic digesters to deal with it. That’s the finding from a new report from UK-based food systems research group Feedback Global.