Food Waste Intelligence

Food waste history buffs will recall the launch of the Courtauld Commitment in 2005. Led by UK-based WRAP and funded by local governments, the initiative engaged food organizations in a voluntary commitment approach to reducing household food waste and food and packaging waste in the UK grocery sector. Recently, the Courtauld Commitment was renamed the UK Food and Drink Pact, and the inclusion of the word “Drink” sparked discussions with my colleagues on the subject of elevating the tracking of liquid food waste as part of standard fo...

The King Edward’s Trust is 10 secondary schools and 10,500 students in Birmingham, England, with foodservice operated by Alliance in Partnership (AIP)/Sodexo. Since 2023, the school kitchen teams have tracked and prevented food waste using Leanpath’s intelligent food waste management system and together have reduced their waste by 40 percent, with a reduction in the value of their food waste of 50 percent.

Minimizing food waste is paramount for foodservice kitchens, impacting both the bottom line and sustainability efforts. In our recent Chefs' Roundtable webinar, our food waste prevention chefs, Robb White and Ben Murphy, explored the essential tools and techniques for building a low-waste kitchen. The discussion highlighted practical approaches to reduce food waste at every stage, from initial preparation to final service.

In busy, high-volume foodservice kitchens seconds count, and efficiency is king. This reality has been a key driver of Leanpath’s innovation over the years, and we’re proud to announce a new milestone in that legacy of innovation. Our new upgrade to Leanpath’s AI-enabled tracking delivers faster, more accurate waste tracking from day one, without time-consuming AI-model training. Using a category-based AI model, it provides increased efficiency and accuracy with the flexibility of customizing the foods you track. Simply put, it is a b...

Leanpath has long recognized that to truly empower kitchen teams, waste data must be accessible, immediate, and actionable. That philosophy is embodied in our new Leanpath mobile app, which puts the full power of our food waste tracking insights right on your mobile device.

For foodservice operators, managing costs has always been a balancing act—but in today’s economy, that balance is becoming harder to maintain. Rising food prices, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures are already squeezing margins, and now, new tariffs on imported goods are set to make food even more expensive. With these financial challenges looming, preventing food waste is no longer just a sustainability goal—it’s a crucial business strategy for survival.

The latest installment of the Chef’s Round Table Webinar brought together chefs from Leanpath and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) to discuss repurposing and upcycling in the kitchen. The conversation was packed with insights, strategies, and best practices for minimizing food waste while enhancing sustainability in foodservice operations.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has released an easy-to-use calculator that allows foodservice operations and others to calculate the methane emissions they’ve avoided by preventing food waste going to landfill. When food decomposes in the landfill, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. According to the EPA, wasted food causes 58 percent of methane emissions from landfills.

The following is an open letter to the industry and the intro to our latest e-book, “Artificial Intelligence in Food Waste Management: Leanpath’s Approach and Vision for a Sustainable Future.” Twenty years ago, when I founded Leanpath, food waste in commercial kitchens was largely an invisible problem. Today, it’s recognized as one of the most pressing challenges our industry faces, with significant economic and environmental implications. Throughout our journey, we’ve witnessed firsthand the power of data to drive change. What began ...

Compass Group Australia has cut its total food waste by 34% since 2022 using Leanpath. The results were reported in Compass Group’s 2024 Sustainability Report. The report highlights: “Over the last three years, our Australian business has continued to deploy Leanpath’s industry leading technology into over 200 sites across the country. By using the system, they have been able to track the total weight of food items repurposed. This year, a reported 45,000kg of food that would have otherwise been wasted, has been utilised.”

Leanpath and our foodservice partners prevented an enormous amount of food waste in 2024: over 25 million pounds of food kept out of the bin. See how that translates into environmental and social benefits and more...

Every day, Leanpath food waste coaches partner with kitchens around the world to empower their teams to achieve extraordinary results—cutting food waste in half while advancing financial and sustainability goals. Our secret weapon? The unwavering dedication and expertise of our people, who bring 20 years of honed best practices and a relentless passion for innovation to every client interaction. Guided by our proven playbook and inspired by the creativity and commitment of our clients, we’re constantly evolving together. Here are some...

Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Illinois, United States, is a 489-bed facility with more than 8,300 team members. Its foodservice operation includes room service; a retail café with scratch-made meals that operates 20 hours a day; an ancillary retail location with pizzas, sandwiches and salads; and a staff dining area. It serves an average of 3,000 retail meals and 1,000 patient meals per day. Carle Health is committed to building a legacy of sustainability, guided by the direct link between environmental health and population he...

Food waste is a significant challenge for kitchens everywhere, especially plate waste, which can account for more than 60% of an operation’s food waste. But reducing it is not out of reach. In a recent webinar presented by Leanpath in partnership with U.S. Foods, chefs Liz Howe, Ben Murphy, and Robb White shared practical, field-tested interventions to tackle plate waste effectively. Here's a breakdown of their insights and strategies:

At Leanpath, we've helped our customers prevent over 100,000,000 pounds of food from going to waste by using our intelligent food waste prevention platform. And we're just getting started. Leanpath brings together artificial intelligence and culinary intelligence to help foodservice operations solve their food waste problem. We don't just drop technology into a kitchen and say good luck. We partner with the chefs, the culinary teams, and the larger organization to help them reach their financial and sustainability goals through food w...

The Leanpath webinar, "10 Food Waste Questions You Need to Ask Your Kitchen Team Today," provided insights for kitchens on minimizing food waste through strategic questioning. With instruction from Leanpath chefs Ben Murphy and Robb White, the session emphasized how asking the right questions in five core areas–overproduction, trim waste, expired ingredients, equipment failure, and quality assurance–can drive waste reduction:. Below are the 10 questions recommended by the chefs to help kitchen teams identify and manage food waste effe...

“Just six years remain to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals’ Target 12.3, which calls for halving food loss and waste worldwide by 2030. At this juncture, we fear that the uncomfortable truth is that SDG 12.3 is fast becoming out of reach.”

Food waste data gave the university’s culinary teams the information they needed to identify problems in prep, forecasting and even recipes to then reduce waste and increase diner satisfaction.

When all contributors are factored in–from land use to food waste–the food system contributes approximately 34 percent of global emissions. This surpasses electricity production and industry by approximately 10 percent each, making it the largest greenhouse gas emitting economic sector in the world.

SkyCity Auckland is a premier entertainment destination in New Zealand, with the country’s largest casino, 609 rooms across two hotels (with a third on the way), a 700-seat theater and an array of dining options.

Pop quiz: you run a busy hospital kitchen, and one of your food suppliers calls you up to ask why your spend with them has decreased since last year. What do you tell them?

Three United States federal agencies have released the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. In line with the recently released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wasted Food Scale, the strategy prioritizes food waste prevention–stopping food waste from being created to begin with–which is the solution Leanpath provides to the foodservice industry.

Leanpath CEO and founder Andrew Shakman recently hosted a webinar on the future of food waste prevention and how operators must adapt to that changing landscape. “When we look to the future,” says Shakman, “we think that food waste action is going to be more required by law and integrated into everyday practice in the world's kitchens rather than being a special activity in an innovation context. It’s going to be the norm of how we think and work.” Here are 5 ways foodservice operations must adapt:

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises rolled out Leanpath across its full fleet of 11 ships in 2023 and has already seen a 36 percent reduction in food waste. But the cruise line is finding even more value in its food waste measurement and prevention by showcasing their work with Leanpath to guests in a special “Progressive Dinner” series (pictured). Here’s how Uniworld explains it in their recently released 2023 Impact Report:

This week, Leanpath is excited to be in Baltimore alongside many of our food waste reduction-focused colleagues from around the world at the 2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit. As we have been preparing for the multitude of sessions at this year’s event, we’ve also been reflecting on the state and pace of food waste reduction efforts in the U.S. and in countries across the globe.

Leanpath is expanding its integration of generative AI into its intelligent food waste prevention platform to drive faster, more impactful kitchen efficiency. This new generative AI integration analyzes a kitchen’s food waste data and recommends specific actions to engage kitchen teams and prevent that waste from reoccurring.

Foodservice operations are often high-intensity, high-pressure environments. There are quotas to meet, quality to uphold, and regulations to comply with. And typically, food waste to contend with—up to 10% of all food purchased goes to waste in the kitchen in many foodservice operations.

Leanpath, the global leader in food waste prevention in foodservice, builds on its integration capability with menu management systems, announcing a partnership with Galley Solutions and its culinary operating system. Leanpath’s intelligent food waste prevention platform is a complete solution that allows foodservice kitchens to understand what they are wasting and why it’s being wasted. Leanpath’s analytics, reporting, and automated prevention tools empower kitchens to stop that waste from reoccurring.

The world is wasting 1.05 billion tons of food a year, amounting to 132 kilograms per capita and almost one-fifth of all food available to consumers. The foodservice industry is responsible for 28 percent of this waste. Those were some of the findings of the UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report 2024, which calculated food waste for the most recent year data is available, 2022.

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!

East Carolina University Medical Center’s Beaufort Hospital is a 142-bed healthcare campus in Washington, North Carolina, USA. Food and nutrition services are operated by Sodexo and overseen by General Manager Denise M. Hewitt and Executive Chef John Jacob Phillips (above at his Leanpath Tracker). The team has successfully reduced its kitchen waste by 53 percent since implementing the Leanpath program in 2020. Expanding on that success, beginning in 2023, they started using their program to track plate waste from patient trays, and wi...

In 2018, Sodexo announced the largest deployment of automated food waste prevention technology in the world, with the plan to roll out WasteWatch powered by Leanpath at 3,000 of its sites worldwide, with the goal of cutting its food waste in half by 2025. To achieve this level of impact requires strong leadership at a regional level. To learn more about what it takes to drive regional commitment and results, we spoke with Sodexo’s Regional Project Manager and Leanpath Champion for the Middle East and Africa, Umesh Jaiswar. Umesh overs...

In our recent Leanpath/US Foods webinar, How Metz Culinary Prevents Food Waste, chefs Timothy Morris and Zach Walrath talked through their strategies for reducing plate waste. Check out the webinar excerpt above to learn their tactics for educating diners and managing portion control --while still delighting customers--to drop plate waste by 25-30%. Watch the full webinar here to learn more tips and strategies.

Two Marriott hotels in Costa Rica, the Costa Rica Marriott Hacienda Belen (above) and Los Suenos Marriott Resort, launched the Leanpath food waste prevention platform last year and have already reduced the value of their food waste by 25%. This significant pace of food waste reduction results puts the hotels in line to easily meet Marriott International’s Serve 360 corporate-wide sustainability goal of cutting food waste in half by 2025.

The dining operation at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, USA, run by Metz Culinary Management, serves more than 1,000 meals a day, primarily from its all-you-care-to-eat dining hall. Executive Chef Timothy Morris and his team have been using Leanpath to track and prevent their food waste for one year. In that time they’ve already reduced waste by an impressive 45 percent. “It’s really important to me to have the kitchen running as tight as possible,” the chef says. “With the cost of food always going up and the money we’re bringing...

Leanpath and our foodservice partners prevented a massive amount of food waste in 2023: over 17 million pounds of food kept out of the bin. See how that translates into other environmental and social benefits to people and the planet...

Leanpath CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Shakman joined USAID's food loss and waste podcast Kitchen Sink to share some perspectives on the importance of food waste prevention, the critical role of measurement in the prevention process, and how kitchen culture changes with a focus on food waste. "If we want to have true system level impact, we need to do it at the prevention level," Andrew explains. "We're not going to compost our way out of a food waste problem that is immense and not stopping." Listen in to the conversation here.

Closing out a year with increasing focus on the importance of food waste reduction, the U.S. released its Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics in early December. Release of the Draft National Strategy is significant, and in fact long overdue, as the U.S. committed to halving food loss and waste reduction in support of Target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back in 2015 – and a united, measurement-focused strategy is needed to get the U.S. on the proper pathway with urgency.

Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center has partnered with technology provider Leanpath in a new effort to reduce its food waste by 50 percent. The hotel’s food waste reduction goal aligns with parent-company Marriott International’s corporate-wide goal of cutting food waste in half by 2025.

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 v...

Earlier this month, the US EPA’s food recovery hierarchy, the upside downtriangle which has guided food waste reduction efforts since the 1990s, got a makeover. And that’s a good thing, as it reflects the continued evolution of research and elevation of activity on food waste reduction.

Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman has been named one of this year’s Meaningful Business 100, among a global group of leaders combining profit and purpose to tackle the world’s most pressing issues. The 5th edition of the award recognizes social entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and impact investors whose work supports the UN Global Goals; in Leanpath’s case, Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve global food waste by 2030.

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 ...

Metz Culinary Management, Inc. (Metz) recently announced its launch of the Leanpath food waste prevention initiative to help its culinary partners curtail waste in meal preparation and service, now operational in 18 Metz dining partner sites. Metz’s food waste prevention initiative is part of the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability across its operations. Metz has set a goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030, in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for food waste reduction...

In December of 2019, the United Nations General Assembly designated September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. UN leaders sought to raise awareness of the scope and scale of the global food waste challenge to speed progress toward Target 12.3 – the global goal of halving food waste by 2030. As we celebrate the fourth annual observance this week, we remain excited by the fact that food loss and waste is now explicitly recognized on the UN calendar – and we believe this date is only growing in importance.

Food waste is a global environmental, social and financial crisis. But it is also the rare win-win scenario for the foodservice industry, where the best thing to do for the planet is also the best thing to do for a kitchen's finances. Here are six stats to help drive that point home:

This post is part of a new series looking at ideas for repurposing commonly overproduced menu items. We see carrots going to waste often across the wide range of foodservice operators we work with at Leanpath, whether it be raw unprepared carrot that was not used for its primary purpose or raw or cooked carrot that was overproduced and then wasted. In both of the above circumstances, there are many actions teams can take to prevent waste of carrots by either preserving or repurposing. With a bit of foresight, whole surplus carrots tha...

The United States Tour Operators Association has awarded Uniworld Boutique River Cruise’s Sustainability Officer Julie Higgins its Future Lights Award for contributions to sustainability in the tourism industry. The organization highlighted Higgins’s “industry-leading efforts to reduce food waste” with Leanpath as her key achievement this year. As the association explained:

This post is part of a new series looking at ideas for repurposing commonly overproduced menu items. At Leanpath, we see a lot of potato waste across many of the foodservice organizations we work with. One of our largest customers recently recorded over 21,000kg of potato waste in one year. In many cases, food waste from low cost ingredients like potatoes and other starches or vegetables is considered low priority, but when labor and disposal fees are considered, there is a huge opportunity to cut costs and reduce environmental impact...

Leanpath CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Shakman sat down with Sharon Cittone for her FoodTech Junkies podcast, taking a dive into Leanpath's history, the state of the food waste movement and what Andrew sees as the road ahead. "We began on a journey to fight food waste in 2004, not knowing what that journey was going to look like and frankly how exciting it would be to see an entire movement build around that." Get a glimpse into the past and future of the food waste movement in foodservice in this 30-minute podcast here.

At Leanpath we have long recognized the connection between food waste and climate change. That critical connection is foundational to our mission of making food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens. The food waste-climate connection has been amplified by many organizations. For example, the UNFAO famouslynoted years ago that if ranked as a country, food waste would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions behind the U.S. and China. The World Wildlife Fund recentlyfound that global ...

It’s a problem Leanpath has seen play out in foodservice kitchens for years. A kitchen decides to track and reduce food waste, but its frontline workers are unengaged because they fear they’ll be punished for acknowledging that food waste occurs. In a recent Leanpath webinar, Engage & Empower Culinary Teams to Prevent Food Waste, Executive Chef Robb White and Director of Business Development Tom Mansel, discussed how to address that problem directly, as well as other tips for engaging your teams. Watch the webinar excerpt above for re...

The catering team at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust are working with Leanpath to prevent food waste throughout their foodservice operation. In their central production unit (CPU) alone, in only eight months, they have cut their food waste by 42 percent, preventing over 3.5 tonnes of food from going to waste.

The foodservice program at Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is broad and ambitious. They have traditional patient trays, room service and a cafeteria, but they also have a full-service restaurant that operates Monday through Friday. They have a medically tailored meal program that serves the hospital as well as area nursing homes and adult care facilities. They also have a small-footprint grocery on site, stocked primarily with donated food for low-income area residents. A mobile version of the grocery will launch soon t...

Leanpath is excited to announce a new partnership with menu management system provider CBORD. The system integration will allow commercial operators to migrate menus and food prices directly from CBORD to Leanpath.

In late April the ReFED team released new estimates on U.S. food waste in its Insights Engine – a valuable tool to help all interested food system stakeholders learn more about the amount and causes of food waste in the U.S., its environmental impact, and the types and effectiveness of solutions to address it. Among many notable stats was the finding that by the time food gets to a foodservice kitchen’s back door, it already contains 80% of its greenhouse gas load. Further proof that food waste prevention—actually stopping food waste ...

The world is at an inflection point regarding climate change and the many sustainability challenges underlying theUN’s Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), including food waste reduction. We’re at thehalfway point toward the 2030 due date for the SDGs, but we are not moving fast enough on many of them to make that deadline. Given the critical nexus aspect of food waste, it is especially important that the world get on track for halving global food waste by 2030 as called for by SDG Target 12.3.

Leanpath is integrating the AI engine behind ChatGPT into its suite of prevention tools as a beta test starting today. Its new AI coach assistant will offer users tips on preventing their specific food waste. Leanpath will be testing the effectiveness of the new technology to help speed food waste prevention efforts.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change added further urgency to addressing the environmental crisis, predicting catastrophic temperature increases by the 2030s unless immediate action is undertaken. The report highlighted those eight key activities, four of which are related to food waste prevention.

Overproduction is the largest source of food waste in most kitchens. In the recent Leanpath webinar, Top Tips for Preventing Food Waste, our chefs Robb White and Ben Murphy offered advice on cutting food waste from overproduction and other common sources. Take a look at the excerpt from the webinar above to find out their tips for avoiding food waste from overproduction. And watch the full webinar here to learn even more insights. Keep reading for a summary.

How do you provide great hospitality in some of the most inhospitable places on earth, without food waste costing the earth financially and environmentally? I asked Winston Hugh, Compass Group Australia’s National Food Waste Reduction Manager (what a great job title!). An Exec Chef by background, Winston knows his apples when it comes to commercial kitchen operations. He’s also Canadian, so he’s no stranger to wide open spaces. Compass Group Australia’s Leanpath programme is overseen by him, and I was curious to find out what it’s rea...

Today, on March 8, at the Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference (MURTEC) Conference in Las Vegas, Leanpath was very excited to be recognized by Hospitality Technology as a winner of the 2023 Industry Heroes Award.

A strong argument has to be made to bring any new equipment or process into a busy foodservice kitchen, and food waste prevention technology is no exception. Our recent webinar, “Making the Business Case for Food Waste Prevention,” now available on demand, lays out the triple-bottom-line argument for implementing a food waste prevention system. It frames the business case in addressing the key stakeholder groups most likely to be involved in making the decision: the culinary, finance, operations and sustainability teams. Watch the 45-...

With food and labor costs still at record highs and supply chain disruptions continuing, an obvious point of leverage for the foodservice industry is buying more pre-prepped frozen foods. And a new survey shows that increasingly the industry is doing just that. Despite the benefits to reducing the potential for food waste, there are still best practices to follow to make sure those increased purchases of frozen product don't lead to increased food waste.

Amid growing pressure for the healthcare sector to decarbonize, a new guide has been released offering best practices. And it advises preventing food waste as one of the most effective ways hospital foodservice can help organizations reduce their carbon footprint.

Stanford University Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) recently announced a goal to reduce its emissions from food purchases 25 percent by 2030. This announcement comes shortly after the release of Stanford R&DE’s Food Waste Prevention Playbook, a guide for campuses to operationalize best practices in minimizing food waste. Both initiatives fall under Stanford’s Scope 3 Emissions Program which was launched in 2021 to address all the indirect emissions that are influenced by the university’s operations. This includes food-related ...

Transitioning into the new year, reducing food waste remains a trending foodservice activity because it addresses so many other trending topics: Food waste prevention cuts costs as inflation continues to wear on thin margins. Food waste prevention is the #1 most actionable thing the foodservice industry can do to address climate change as concerns over sustainability continue to rise. And stopping food waste from being generated leaves valuable resources in the food system as food insecurity continues to increase around the world. Che...

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has partnered with Leanpath in a new effort to reduce campus food waste from Rheta's Market by 50 percent.

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 w...

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 29th, 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 alon...

Questions. Everyone has them. I have been fortunate enough to work with hundreds of organizations and thousands of chefs and most of them have the same thing in common: they have a food waste problem and they want a solution for it. I get asked A LOT of questions. Most of the questions I get asked are about repurposing - like, “Chef, do you have a recipe for orange peels?” or “What do I do with leftover pizza dough?” Most of these types of questions have to do with chefs looking for recipes or ideas to creatively turn trim waste or ov...

Over the past 12 months the environmental issues that have seen the most increase in concern among consumers are climate change, water shortages and food shortages, according to a new survey from market research firm Mintel. All three of those–as well as 8 of the full 10 most pressing environmental concerns among consumers–can be directly addressed with a single initiative that has a nexus impact: preventing food waste. These new findings, combined with other recent research showing increased awareness of food waste among consumers, r...

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 o...

Sodexo Middle East has prevented over 400 metric tons of carbon emissions across 31 sites since August 2021. This has been made possible via Sodexo’s food waste reduction program, WasteWatch powered by Leanpath (WWxLP).

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 producti...

Consumer awareness of the food waste crisis has more than doubled in the past two years as rising food prices, supply chain challenges, the pandemic, and sustainability concerns are impacting consumer behavior, a new report finds. The report by Capgemini Research Institute found that 72 percent of consumers are aware of their food waste as compared to 33 percent of consumers before 2020.

On May 12, Leanpath Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Shakman delivered the closing keynote address at the 2022 ReFED Food Waste Conference. "Unfortunately," he states, "the scale of our movement does not yet match the scale of the food waste problem." Reflecting on 18 year of driving food waste change, Andrew identifies the limiting beliefs that are holding us back--and how we overcome them. Watch the video above or read the following transcript. After this fantastic conference, everyone should be armed and ready to drive change. And I hope ...

After a lengthy Covid-related break, Leanpath was pleased to join numerous colleagues, partners and food system changemakers for the ReFED 2022 Food Waste Solutions Summit in Minneapolis last week. We would like to share our congratulations to the ReFED team for an expansive, exceptionally well-curated session that covered multiple sectors and themes (consumer change, climate, capital, DEIJ, health, innovation, etc.) while underscoring the need for urgent action to halve food waste in accordance with the 2030 United Nations’ goal. The...

Your kitchen is nearing the end of a busy service and it’s been a long day. Your culinary team is short staffed. Everybody is drained and looking forward to heading home. But there’s still food to be served, and breakdown and clean up still have to be done. There are many food waste critical control points within a kitchen: the end of service is one of the most important. What happens in this short span of time, when staff are often distracted, can have a large impact–positively or negatively–on your food waste prevention efforts. The...

Six years ago, recognizing the need to drive increased focus on the global food waste challenge, Leanpath partner Compass Group launched an educational campaign designating the last Wednesday in April as Stop Food Waste Day. Coming just days after Earth Day–with this year’s theme of “Invest in our Planet”–the timing couldn’t be better, because reducing food waste is one of the single most effective levers that the world has to transform the food system. It also is key to accelerate progress toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal...

Hello everyone and happy Earth Day. I'm Andrew Shakman, Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Shakman. I have one simple thought and request for you as we collectively reflect today on the changes needed to sustain our planet. My request: please don’t underestimate the importance of food waste. When Earth Day was founded 52 years ago, food waste prevention was not a central concern. But this year, the newest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change references food waste 125 times. And there’s a reason for that.

The foodservice operation at Mt. San Antonio Gardens, a retirement community in California, is run by Sodexo, and serves 1,500 covers a day with buffet and tableside service. The kitchen team, led by General Manager Jack Forrest, began using Waste Watch Powered by Leanpath to track and prevent food waste in 2020. They’ve already prevented 56 percent of their food waste.

March is B Corp month, a time specifically devoted to raising awareness of the importance of the unique nature of B Corporations, and to celebrate the work that B Corporations around the world do to positively impact people and planet. Leanpath team members are highly mission-driven in committing to ensure a sustainable future for all by making food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens, and therefore we are naturally energized by our B Corp status. (That's us in the picture volunteering at an Oreg...

Leanpath is thrilled to be nominated for the prestigious Earthshot Prize. The Earthshot Prize seeks to catalyze efforts to repair and regenerate the planet by scaling solutions in five core areas that underpin the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Protect and Restore Nature, Clean our Air, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-free World, and Fix our Climate. Each of these five areas is critical, and all are detailed further in the organization’s Roadmap to Regeneration summary, which also includes a simple yet powerful...

Since beginning our partnership in 2014, Google has prevented 10 million pounds of food from being wasted using Leanpath, the equivalent of eliminating 25,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere. Michiel Bakker, Google's VP of Global Programs, made the announcement along with news of the company’s ambitious prevention goal: “To protect our planet and keep it healthy, we need to collectively cut back on food waste — for us at Google, that means doubling down on our efforts to reduce waste in our kitchens and cafes. By 2025, we ai...

A new report from Stanford University says that the potency of methane as a contributor to global warming is being dramatically undervalued based on an “arbitrary and unjustified” measuring system put in place by the Kyoto Protocol. The report is the latest in a growing chorus of international calls to put greater emphasis on reducing methane emissions to address climate change. This greater focus on methane, the primary greenhouse gas released from food waste, puts even more importance on the need to address the food waste crisis as ...

When COVID-19 took hold in 2020, one of the first dramatic changes in foodservice was the disappearance of buffets and salad bars. As the industry (and the world) continues to return to something more like a pre-pandemic normal, self-serve operations continue to come back online. Las Vegas, one of the buffet capitals of the world, continues its dining return; Disney Parks continues reopening buffet service; and one of the U.S.’s leading college trend setters, Penn State, just reintroduced self service. While this is positive news for ...

Sodexo, through its foodservice work at Good Samaritan Medical Center, in Lafayette, Colorado, is a national award winner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies 2021 Food Recovery Challenge competition. Sodexo won the award for its work preventing food waste with Leanpath. “Our success with waste reduction throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is truly a testament to our team and their resiliency, consistency, and hard work,” said Natosha Jergensen, General Manager, Sodexo at Good Samaritan Medical Center. “We believe sustainability...

The world is experiencing a massive labor shortage, the impact of which is falling particularly hard on foodservice. Chefs and managers are being forced to introduce new processes and procedures that allow the day-to-day functions of the kitchen to continue, but with much less labor than they had before. When chefs and managers choose a labor-saving tactic to fix one aspect of the operation, there may be pitfalls or unintended consequences, like an increase in food waste.

UVA Dine, operated by Aramark, has been tracking food waste with Leanpath since 2018. The team has racked up impressive results using the program, including reducing their food waste by 59%. They have achieved these results by using tracking data to identify food waste instances and trends and addressing them with their kitchen teams.

#1: How Mount Holyoke College used food waste tracking to quickly adapt to COVID-19 changes As we all adjusted to the challenges of COVID-19, something notable rose to the surface in foodservice: measuring food waste was no longer just a way to cut costs and be more efficient, it became a key tool for learning and adapting to the new normal. What a kitchen wastes is one of the few real-time data points it can use to understand what's working and what's not. Our top blog post of the year took a deep dive into how Mount Holyoke, a women...

The challenges faced by the foodservice industry in 2021–rising food and labor costs and disrupted supply chains–put a fine point on the need to prevent food waste and its financial burden. The growing body of evidence connecting food waste and climate change created even more urgency for foodservice organizations. Working with those organizations in over 40 countries, Leanpath and its partners prevented 14 million pounds of food from going to waste, bringing the total impact since 2004–when Leanpath introduced food waste prevention s...

It’s clear that an organization is doing pioneering work in the food system when the President and the Vice President come to participate, as occurred at DC Central Kitchen (DCCK) just before Thanksgiving. And we agree. Leanpath has been proud to partner with DCCK for the past three years through our Leanpath 12.3 initiative, supporting the organization’s transformative work to address hunger and poverty through job training and job creation since its founding by Robert Egger over 30 years ago (read more about DCCK’s history here). We...

Aramark Regional Executive Chef Damon Mangano oversees the food and nutrition services at a large Midwestern healthcare system running 11 hospitals. Tracking and preventing food waste with Leanpath since 2017, the system’s kitchens have reduced their cumulative waste 50%. Chef Damon says from the start, his chefs were startled by the cost of the food they were wasting, which teams see in the Leanpath system as soon as items are tracked. “From the very start, when cooks saw what the food waste was costing, folk were saying things like,...

Food waste is a $1 trillion global problem. And roughly one quarter of that waste is coming from foodservice--a significant source of lost profits for the industry. The cost of food waste is typically equated with the purchase cost of that wasted food, which makes sense. But the true cost of food waste has to also factor in the cost of the labor used in inventorying, preparing, serving and ultimately discarding that food waste. Right now, the world is experiencing a massive labor shortage, the impact of which is falling particularly h...

It’s been an exciting, and pivotal, couple of weeks as world leaders, policymakers, business leaders, and concerned citizens gathered in Glasgow for COP26 – the Conference of the Parties to focus global efforts on emissions reduction. And while we prepare to analyze the final outcomes of the sessions, the need to sharply reduce emissions across all meaningful contributing sectors is beyond question.

The U.S.-based National Association of College and University Food Service (NACUFS) put food waste as the top sustainability priority among a list of 10 pressing issues in their newly released Sustainability Guide. Recognizing the broad impact of addressing food waste, the guide states, “When the reduction of food waste occurs, climate change, water scarcity, and hunger are impacted, in addition to operational savings.”

The University of Rochester in New York State has 14 dining locations operated by the contract management firm Harvest Table Culinary Group. The program has been run for 16 years by Senior Executive Chef Tony Pignagrande. The university began tracking and preventing food waste with Leanpath in 2017, leading to a reduction in food waste of 46 percent, and helping the team achieve two corporate goals of conserving resources and reducing carbon emissions.

Sodexo has deployed Leanpath at over 200 sites across the UK leading to the prevention of 280 tonnes of food waste, in line with its pledge to cut food waste across its organization by 50 percent by 2025. That puts Sodexo ahead of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal to halve food waste globally by 2030. Reducing food loss and waste contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Sodexo's focus on food waste forms part of the organization's commitment to reducing its carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2025, su...

September 29 is the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. Leanpath is proud to have played a role at the United Nations in creating this designation, now in its second year. In recognition of this important day, Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman offers a state of the global food waste fight in this two-minute video. Between one-third and one-half of global food production is still lost or wasted. At Leanpath we understand that the fight against food waste is winnable. We see it every day in kitchens around the world. But no...

Preventing food waste—actually stopping it from being created in the first place—is the most financially and environmentally effective solution available to foodservice organizations. But when edible excess food still occurs and can’t be repurposed internally, donation is the next best thing. Leanpath Trackers have always allowed users to identify excess food going to donation. And to provide better insights into those donation activities, we are excited to announce the release of the new Leanpath Donation Dashboard. The Donation Dash...

In the foodservice industry, the use of plastic sometimes can’t be prevented. Much of the food we purchase and utilize in our operations come packaged in plastic and we use plastic in the operation to preserve the food we purchase and serve. But plastic waste is one of the fastest growing problems for the environment. It is estimated that by 2050, the weight of plastic in the ocean will surpass the weight of fish. With this in mind, it is important not only for individuals to reduce their plastic use, but for foodservice operations to...

The two biggest costs a foodservice operation contends with -- food and labor -- are both way up. The recovery from COVID is unsteady and unpredictable due to the Delta variant. At a time when kitchen staff are being asked to do even more with even less, the typical foodservice operation continues to waste 4% to 10% of the food it purchases. You simply can’t afford that level of waste and inefficiency, particularly right now. Here are 3 charts to help explain why.

As awareness of the connection between food waste and climate change grows globally, a new report illustrates the environmental impact of China’s food waste in stark detail. More than a quarter of food produced for human consumption in China is lost or wasted each year. The carbon footprint of that waste is equal to the entire emissions of a country the size of the United Kingdom.

Food is thrown away and wasted due to a variety of reasons—overproduction, spoilage, expiration, and so on. At Leanpath, we use "mishandling" as a loss reason to define food that is unfit for consumption and must be thrown away due to improper handling during production. There are a myriad of examples of improper handling of food during production, but let’s focus on the most common occurrences I see in a kitchen and what you can do to avoid them.

The Association of Healthcare Foodservice (AHF) hosted a recent webinar focusing on why sustainability initiatives are so important right now. The webinar panel included Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman alongside Gina Sadowski, Director for Nutrition, Culinary and Retail at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Richard Young, Director of Education at the Frontier Energy Foodservice Technology Center. Watch the full webinar here, and check out four key takeaways from the session below.

"By addressing food waste we have an opportunity to address two of the biggest problems facing our people and our planet: climate change and food insecurity." Leanpath Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Shakman on the inspiration behind the B Corp he started, the enormous challenge--and opportunity--of food waste, and the simple change to kitchen culture that allows foodservice organizations to take control of their own food waste. All in 2 minutes.

Hotel and cruise ship guests--like the majority of all consumers--expect brands to practice sustainability. When those sustainability practices include food waste prevention, it opens the opportunity to discuss the issue with guests, to get them involved in the effort and to bring well-deserved attention to your brand's good work. Talking about food waste can be the new talking-about-towel-reuse initiative! To help guide efforts, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently published 5 tips for talking about food waste in its Toolkit For Co...

Inspiring and engaging your culinary team is a constant challenge in today’s kitchens. There are always so many tasks to check off, prep to get done, things to clean, and meals to cook that sometimes keeping our teams inspired and engaged falls off the radar. As kitchens begin to ramp back up production, now is the perfect time to refocus your team's efforts and continue to build that culture of food waste prevention that you had before the foodservice industry came to screeching halt due to the pandemic.

There’s a lot of attention on carbon reduction these days, and that’s a good thing. Because the need to reduce carbon emissions to limit global warming is clear and urgent, and like food waste reduction, is critically linked to all of the other Sustainable Development Goals. The Paris Agreement of 2015 sought to galvanize a global response to climate change with a goal of limiting global temperature rise to less than 2°C (and preferably less than 1.5°C) over pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman recently joined three other leaders of the global food waste movement – Tristram Stuart, UK-based activist, author and Feedback founder, Dana Gunders, Executive Director at ReFED and author of the key U.S.-focused report Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food From Farm to Fork to Landfill, and culinary expert Jonathan Deutsch, Drexel University Professor and Director of the Drexel Food Lab and President of the Upcycled Food Foundation – in a special educational session on accelerating fo...

At Leanpath, our focus is on helping large foodservice kitchens track and prevent their food waste by 50% or more. But food waste, of course, doesn’t just happen in foodservice kitchens. In fact, according to a recent report by the UN Environment Programme, the bulk of the world’s food waste comes from home kitchens: ⅓ of the 1.3 billion tonnes wasted each year globally (foodservice kitchens account for ¼ of the total).

As Leanpath's full time Executive Chef, I've trained and coached hundreds of chefs and managers on preventing food waste in their operations. One of the most persistent issues is also one of the most avoidable: food waste from items expiring in storage. Avoiding this waste takes establishing and following strict processes to ensure everything in storage is used before it can expire. Here are three questions to ask yourself or your team to find out how effective your kitchen is at avoiding expired food waste.

Earth Day is April 22. There’s never a wrong time to talk about the impact of food waste prevention on the environment, but Earth Day seems particularly well suited. Each day in the seven days leading up to Earth Day? Even better. If your organization is committed to food waste prevention, we encourage you to remind your team of the critical work they are doing to address some of the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. Beginning April 15—one week before Earth Day—incorporate one reason why food waste prevention matters a day i...

As part of its global rollout of food waste prevention technology, Sodexo has introduced Leanpath at seven locations in Thailand, including leading hospitals and international schools. WasteWatch Powered by Leanpath, Sodexo’s internal food waste prevention program that leverages Leanpath technology and support, has reduced waste at active sites by an average of 50 percent and has been rolled out at 1,200 sites globally. Sodexo’s global goal is to reduce its cumulative food waste 50 percent by 2025.

In its 2020 Environmental Report, released March 2, Google announced its food waste prevention success: 9.2 million pounds prevented since 2014, through its work with Leanpath in hundreds of Google Cafes around the world. “We constantly devise inventive solutions to repurpose food and to compost and donate leftovers wherever we’re legally able to do so,” the report states. “However, we’ve learned that the best way to reduce food waste is to prevent it in the first place by tracking data and making adjustments.”

Throughout 2020, headlines reminded us of the disruptions the pandemic was having on the global food system. The images of food waste accumulating on farms and milk being dumped because distribution networks were shut down were stark reminders of how fragile the food system is. Put against the increased number of people going hungry as economies faltered, the public was left with a clear message: something has to be done about food waste. With that clarity, it is no surprise the issue of food waste topped annual trend forecasting repo...

As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S., Vidant Medical Center in eastern North Carolina began to prepare for the potential of overcrowding, supply chain interruptions, and overwhelming strain on the staff. To support the patients and staff, Vidant’s dining services team jumped in to adapt their operations. “Our customer base dropped dramatically almost overnight,” said Troy Sheppard, Food & Nutrition Service Line Administrator and Client Executive with Sodexo, which provides dining operations for Vidant Health system. Incre...

An ambitious new resource to help understand the problem of food waste in the United States ranked food waste tracking as the most financially impactful solution foodservice organizations can leverage. Launched by the nonprofit ReFED, the new Insights Engine builds on the group’s landmark 2016 study, A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste by 20%. Like in that earlier report, preventing food waste (which food waste tracking enables) remains the focus of the Insights Engine.

Peels, pulp, cores, rinds, stems. When you prep fruits and vegetables you end up with trim. And for the majority of kitchens using Leanpath, trim waste ranks as their second biggest source of waste (behind overproduction). But that trim doesn’t have to lead to trim waste. You can maximize usage of this product, making better use of your food spend along the way. Remember, you paid for that rind, so why just throw it out? Here are 18 ideas to get better use out of that often overlooked and underutilized fruit and vegetable trim.

Mount Holyoke College started tracking food waste with Leanpath in October of 2019. And then, well, the world changed. For the safety of the community the majority of the students were asked to leave in the spring. The college reopened in August with only 150 students on campus. The private women’s college in Massachusetts, USA, typically has a student body of 2,200. “But the college wanted to make sure those students got a great dining program, and they also wanted to keep as many of our foodservice staff employed as possible,” expla...

Despite the many challenges the foodservice industry faced in 2020, kitchens around the world working with Leanpath still prevented 12 million pounds (or 5 million kilos) of food from being wasted last year. A significant bright spot in an otherwise dark year. This takes Leanpath’s total for the past 6 years alone to 61 million pounds (28 million kilos) of food waste prevented. As we often say, food waste is a nexus issue: when you prevent food waste from happening you also address some of the most pressing environmental problems we f...

In 2019, building on several years of work in providing donations to various non-profit organizations in the food sector, we were excited to formalize and amplify those efforts with the creation of a new and separate structure at Leanpath, the Leanpath 12.3 Initiative. With a name that draws a parallel to Target 12.3 – the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal that calls for cutting global food loss and waste in half by 2030 – we created the Leanpath 12.3 Initiative with a specific purpose: to assist mission-aligned, resource-constrained ...

As we all adjusted to the challenges of 2020, something notable rose to the surface in foodservice: measuring food waste was no longer just a way to cut costs and be more efficient, it became a key tool in the learning and adapting process kitchens went through as they rose to the challenge of the new normal. What a kitchen wasted was one of the few real-time data points it could use to understand what was working and what was not as volumes dropped and service styles changed dramatically. Controlling food waste became more important ...

UK-based WRAP, the Waste Resources Action Programme, recently announced a food waste reduction campaign entitled “Wasting food: it’s out of date.” This is a highly visual effort to convey the scale of the food waste challenge through eye-opening facts (ex. the UK discards 20 million slices of bread daily) and the associated deep environmental, social, and financial impacts (ex. over 500,000 acres of land are unnecessarily used to produce the inputs for that wasted bread). Building on WRAP’s Love Food, Hate Waste work, the idea is to f...

According to a new report, the energy, transportation and manufacturing sectors could drastically reduce their carbon emissions, but the world still wouldn’t hit Paris climate agreement targets because of greenhouse gases from the food system. A staggering reminder of the need to prevent food waste, among other food system improvements.

Waste 360's Nothing Wasted Podcast sat down with Leanpath Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Shakman to discuss food waste as a "nexus issue": the fact that when you prevent food waste, you also prevent other bad things from happening. Food waste prevention reduces greenhouse gas emissions, it stops fresh water from being squandered growing food that only gets wasted, and it leaves valuable resources in the food system for those who are food insecure. It's a big deal. Hear Andrew elaborate on this and other topics. Go straight to the podcast h...

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. In September, 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 on 16 October, 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 t...

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.

We're proud to introduce Leanpath Scout, a food waste Tracker custom designed to fit in small spaces, achieve fast ROI even with lower food budgets and still deliver big food waste reduction.

Food waste prevention matters now more than ever for foodservice bottom-lines. Lower traffic, unpredictable production levels, new service styles, all combine to put added pressure on already narrow margins–and increase the likelihood of food waste.

We’re proud to announce that Leanpath is now a Certified B Corporation® - joining only 3,400 other companies around the globe that are committed to balancing purpose and profit.

Introducing our newest food waste Tracker, Leanpath Go, a mobile, item-based tracking platform specifically designed to respond to the industry’s COVID-era needs. We heard you: to reduce contact and increase social distancing and sanitation, you are doing more grab-and-go, offering more pre-portioned take out, and creating more dispersed dining service.

Restaurants deal with two primary costs: food and labor. In the current foodservice environment, kitchens have to get truly creative in order to meet the financial obligations of the business. Labor cost is and will always be a struggle to get a handle on. Too much labor and money is wasted, not enough and your business and customer satisfaction suffers.

The recent deaths of people of color and the elements of global systemic racism that they have highlighted is incredibly sobering and in many ways unthinkable. Leanpath is a technology company with an environmental focus, but we are people first, and we share the planet with everyone. And so we can’t turn away. The push for change and action is rightly everywhere, and our team at Leanpath is inspired to take action–to do what we can to enable a sharp transition to an equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist society which truly embraces d...

A new global survey has found the majority of consumers expect food and beverage companies to focus first and foremost on “doing the most good for society” over “satisfying consumer demand” and that the primary means of doing good for society is reducing food waste.

A new report from the UK's Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) shows consumers are increasingly concerned about food waste as the COVID-19 crisis has led to a greater value placed on food.

As foodservice operations reopen from COVID-19 shutdowns, it is widely anticipated that service volumes will be reduced at the onset and increase slowly over months. While it may be assumed that less traffic leads to less food waste, a new Leanpath analysis shows just the opposite: on average, low volumes actually lead to higher levels of food waste relative to food purchases.

Leanpath is proud to announce a new partnership with other global organizations to find innovative new funding models for food waste prevention.

Swedish is the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the Puget Sound, Washington, area. Six of its dispersed facilities utilize the Leanpath platform to prevent food waste. The healthcare foodservice operation at its First Hill campus is run by Corporate Executive Chef Zachary Schwab. First Hill typically has about 1,800 covers a day in patient services, with 600 meals a day retail and around 10 catered events. Schwab has overseen food waste reduction with Leanpath since 2007. That experience has led to the development of system-w...

There are three new realities foodservice kitchens will face as they reopen that carry the risk of creating excessive amounts of food waste. In a Leanpath webinar entitled Reopen Strong, Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman led a discussion with the Leanpath Culinary Council to explain these new realities and how to avoid the food waste lurking within them. Here is a summary of the discussion.

As economies slowly begin to reopen, the picture of what awaits foodservice is starting to come into focus. What we’re seeing are new challenges–but also significant opportunities–for food waste prevention.

Ten years ago the Martinsburg VA Medical Center, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, launched its Green Kitchen initiative, a precedent-setting sustainability program in the Veteran’s Administration. Food waste is a central focus, and working with Leanpath from the start, the foodservice team has prevented over 330,000 pounds of food from being wasted.

Today isn’t just any Earth Day, it’s the 50th Earth Day. And to celebrate we’ve collected 50 of our top food waste prevention tips for the kitchen, whether the foodservice or home kitchen. It’s cliché, but in kitchens preventing food waste, every day is Earth Day. We’re proud to help kitchens around the world bring the mission of a more sustainable planet to their teams and their work. Enjoy!

Whether you’ve already got an active grab-and-go program or are instituting or expanding a program, there are best practices to follow to ensure it’s as waste-free as possible.

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.

CBORD, an integrated technology provider, hosted a webinar focusing on the many challenges that COVID-19 poses for healthcare foodservice professionals. Panelists from Indiana University Health and Duke Raleigh Hospital shared stories and strategies they've implemented to keep their patients and teams safe and nourished amid this crisis. We've included our key takeaways from this valuable call and a link to the full webinar for you.

At Leanpath, tracking food waste on an hourly basis around the world, we’ve watched as COVID-19 has been felt across the global foodservice industry. As we’ve seen many operations forced to shut down abruptly, we’ve also seen an associated spike in food waste levels. We’ve had a unique vantage point from which to watch this set of adverse changes.

For some in the foodservice industry, part of the recovery from COVID-19 will involve filing insurance claims. Part of those claims may include coverage for food that had to be wasted as a result of the crisis. We wanted to give our clients a walk through on two ways to generate the relevant reports from your Leanpath data.

[Note: Please see here for advice on reducing food waste during a COVID-19 shut down.] Sunday, March 22, is World Water Day, an annual observance organized by the United Nations. We all know the importance of food in our daily lives – and at no time is that more important than in the virus-impacted world of today when our food supplies are being unexpectedly disrupted. So it is fitting that at this point in time we also reflect on our most precious natural resource – water – which makes the growth of our food possible.

As the situation around COVID-19 continues to evolve, many foodservice operations around the globe are experiencing impacts. With a focus on health and safety, operations are temporarily closing, adjusting hours to limited service, or changing service styles to remove self-service or buffets - anything to mitigate the chance of spreading the virus. Foodservice teams may be notified with short notice of these changes in an effort to further protect our communities.

The impact of COVID-19 on the foodservice and hospitality industry is hitting fast and, at least for now, hard. During any time of uncertainty, it’s important to focus on what you can actually control. There are ways kitchens can increase efficiency during slow times--or anytime for that matter--and take greater control of the impact of that slow down on their bottom line.

Executive Chef Brian Deegan runs the foodservice operation at Marriott’s Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville, Spain. The 150-room hotel has five restaurants and bars, with a third of its F&B revenue from banquet events. Chef Deegan is a self-confessed numbers guy. “I like to run a tight ship,” he says. “I don’t want to sound like a scrooge, but we’re a kitchen not a supermarket. I buy fresh food to sell not to keep on the shelves.” He embraced food waste tracking and the insight it provided on how to be more efficient. And he’s shown big re...

In 2019, Leanpath launched the Leanpath 12.3 Initiative, an effort to expand the reach of food waste prevention knowledge and tools to non-profits and educational organizations. As part of the Initiative, we’re excited to report on a research partnership we've joined entitled, “Food Waste and the Environment” sponsored by SESYNC – The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center.

Executive Chef Shaun Woodhouse and his team at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa Edinburgh discovered opportunities to cut their waste and began changing purchasing and prep to drive results, which have been impressive: a 64% reduction in food waste value and a 58% reduction in weight. They’ve maintained these levels over time as Leanpath became a “business as usual” component of their kitchen. “The support from Leanpath has been great.”

Forward Fooding has released its inaugural FoodTech 500 list – a ranking of the top global AgriFoodTech startups “at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability” – patterned after the Fortune 500 listing. Leanpath was pleased to be ranked #16 – the highest ranking for a food waste solution – in recognition of the positive impact that we have on making the food system more sustainable by driving food waste prevention at scale.

IKEA Canada achieved its goal of reducing food waste in its kitchens by over 30 percent within one year of implementing Leanpath. IKEA Canada’s effort is part of a larger global ambition to diminish food waste in all IKEA stores by 50 percent before the end of August 2020. More than 94,000 kilograms of food waste—equivalent to approximately 200,000 meals—has been saved since the program started in Canada.

While overall food waste fell in the UK by an average 7 percent per person between 2015 and 2018, food waste in foodservice and hospitality rose 7 percent.

The new year is a time when we reflect on lessons learned and set new goals with renewed energy and focus. These themes seem particularly relevant as we enter 2020 – the beginning of a decade of action for hitting the UN Sustainable Development Goals – and, specifically, for hitting Target 12.3, that audacious goal of cutting global food waste in half by 2030. A goal that, if achieved, will directly benefit many of the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals due to the central nature of food in our lives and the many linkages between f...

Salad bars are vital in high-volume operations. The salad bar concept allows the kitchen to feed a lot of guests with the least amount of labor cost. It gives guests the ability to customize their meals. It offers chefs a way to utilize and repurpose ingredients in a creative and efficient manner. There are many positives to salad bars, but standard displays and operating procedures can also lead to massive amounts of food waste.

We had a lot to be grateful for this year. Working with thousands of kitchens around the world, we empowered frontline foodservice workers to prevent over 18 million pounds of food waste, which translates to 15 million meals saved from the bin. Preventing food waste also prevents greenhouse gas emissions from that food waste. Leanpath partners kept over 58 thousand metric tonnes of C02 emissions from entering the atmosphere.

In order to meet the UN goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 we need to accelerate adoption of food waste measurement and behavior change around the world. That means understanding the fears and concerns of companies that have the largest potential impact and responding to them with expertise. The Food Loss & Waste Protocol released a conversational whitepaper identifying top objections to measuring food waste with recommendations on how to move the conversation forward. Here is a summary of the top objections to measuring food ...

The holidays can be tough on the planet. Road trips and flights to visit family. Christmas gifts shrouded in plastic. A lot of consumption and waste. As culinary professionals our focus this time of year is on guests and food. We are in the unique position on the front line to make the changes to combat the global food waste problem and be part of the solution. A lot of food gets wasted this time of year, so what can you do about it?

In a recent interview between Google Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt and The Financial Times, we got to hear how food waste prevention has become an impactful part of the company's global circularity and sustainability strategies. Learn how this partnership has prevented 6.6 million pounds of food waste from going to landfill.

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, all food waste is not equal. Based on its GHG footprint, meat waste contributes the largest amount of emissions by weight. Waste a little bit of beef, contribute a lot of GHGs. But as a recent World Resources Institute report shows, vegetables are actually the biggest contributor to emissions behind beef and seafood, simply because of the sheer volume of vegetables wasted.

Chef Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition Services for Boulder Valley School District, in Colorado, USA, and founder of the Chef Ann Foundation has worked with Leanpath to reduce food waste across the district. We also recently collaborated on a new curriculum teaching the importance of food waste prevention to elementary school students.

Staff engagement in food waste prevention pays big dividends. When staff are engaged in tracking food waste, a kitchen gets more complete data, which provides greater insight into what a kitchen is wasting and why. But staff engagement in a mission-driven effort like food waste prevention also leads to better retention and job satisfaction.

We’ve just returned from ReFED’s 2019 Food Waste Summit in San Francisco, where we were excited to participate with many long-time partners and colleagues on the challenge of advancing food waste reduction at scale in accordance with Target 12.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals - which calls for cutting global food waste in half by 2030.

The Hilton San Diego Bayfront, a 1,190-room luxury hotel on the city’s waterfront, has been tracking food waste with Leanpath for only five months, but has already seen a dramatic reduction in food waste: a 50% drop in waste by weight and 51% drop by waste value.

Today is World Food Day – a day that we take to heart at Leanpath. Coming on the heels of Climate Week in New York City, where we spent several days engaged in energizing sessions on how to positively change the global food system with numerous partners and thought leaders from organizations such as the World Resources Institute and Champions 12.3, The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN), and the Future Food Institute, we’re even more energized by the importance of this day.

We’re excited to announce that Leanpath just closed $7m in growth funding to accelerate our mission of making food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens.

Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman was honored Thursday night with the Special Achievement Award at the 2019 Waste2Zero gala in London.

One of the best tools to prevent food waste is your menu, and deliberately integrating repurposing into the menu to ensure food is reutilized rather than wasted. In a webinar hosted by Leanpath Executive Chef Robb White, Sodexo chefs from the healthcare, corporate dining and universities segments shared their best practices in reducing food waste through inventory and menu management and staff engagement. Today, we’ll review the discussion on menu planning.

In a first for a global foodservice company, Sodexo has tied its financing to its performance in preventing food waste. The company announced yesterday it renewed its €1.3 billion revolving credit facility, which now incorporates a pricing adjustment based on Sodexo's performance towards its goal to prevent 50% of the food waste and food losses from its operations by 2025.

During a lively webinar hosted by Leanpath Executive Chef Robb White, Sodexo chefs from the healthcare, corporate dining and universities segments shared their best practices in reducing food waste through inventory and menu management and staff engagement. Today, we’ll review the discussion on inventory management.

We're excited to announce today the launch of the Leanpath 12.3 Initiative, an effort to expand the reach of food waste prevention knowledge and tools to non-profits and educational organizations.

The World Food Summit, held at the Danish National Parliament, brought together experts from multiple sectors and disciplines for two days of discussions focused on the challenge of quickly transitioning to a more sustainable global food system. The need for urgent change to create a more sustainable food system is clear, and virtually all of the conference sessions effectively supported that theme. I was proud to represent Leanpath at the event.

Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman sat down with Chef Shawn Bucher at the Business Chef Podcast to discuss the impact and growing awareness of food waste.

A bold new foodservice industry campaign called Guardians of Grub, is empowering foodservice professionals in the UK and beyond to Stand Up for Food and reduce food waste during the month of September.

In five months using Leanpath, New Seasons Market's Central Kitchen has prevented over 46 thousand pounds of food from being wasted, a reduction of 22 percent in its waste. High staff engagement and strong data analysis has produced many positive changes in the team, and a new level of gratification to their work.

As Leanpath's full time Executive Chef, I've trained and coached hundreds of chefs and managers on preventing food waste in their operations. When you spend this much time with frontline foodservice workers, hearing their food waste successes and horror stories, valuable trends emerge. One of the most aggravating food loss reasons I hear about all the time is equipment failure. As chefs and managers, we trust our kitchen tools, sometimes too much. Here are a few questions to ask your staff to prevent food waste due to equipment failur...

Bringing a new piece of equipment into a busy kitchen is never a decision to be taken lightly. And since food waste prevention is often a brand new part of the kitchen workflow, it’s understandable that there could be a lot of questions about what it means for your processes and team. In the last two years, I’ve visited over 120 kitchens, training them on preventing food waste with Leanpath. Here are the most common questions I get asked about introducing Leanpath equipment into foodservice kitchens.

It is very hard to read the latest UN report on climate change. Not technically challenging - it’s written in very clear, stark language - but emotionally difficult. The problems are so big, so daunting, it’s hard to keep it all in your head at once. So it’s worth remembering as we are faced again with the enormity of the problem, that the way to deal with any big challenge is to break it down into manageable pieces, and focus on those. For foodservice kitchens, the manageable piece of the climate challenge is preventing food waste.

Food waste prevention is a mission, and mission-driven companies have an easier time recruiting and retaining staff. With foodservice turnover rates at 70% and higher, giving staff a reason to see their work as bigger than themselves, bigger than one shift or daypart, is not just nice, but necessary. Food waste prevention can do that. Here are 5 ways to get your staff engaged in the mission.

Today, July 29, is Earth Overshoot Day. It’s a critically important day for everyone interested in advancing food waste reduction and ensuring a sustainable future. Earth Overshoot Day represents the point in the year where humanity’s demand for ecological resources (our collective ecological footprint) exceeds the Earth’s ability to supply them (biocapacity). The Global Footprint Network maintains the annual calculation of Earth Overshoot which has, unfortunately, been moving steadily forward (i.e. earlier in the calendar) over time....

We're excited to welcome Scott Allmendinger to the front lines of the fight against food waste as Leanpath's Vice President of Sales. Scott has been a chef, award-winning writer, and sales team leader, but his favorite job? Dishwasher. Learn more about the newest member of our team.

The National Association for College and University Foodservice (NACUFS) hosted its National Conference last week in Denver, Colorado. Thousands of C&U foodservice professionals gathered in common pursuit of operational excellence. Leanpath was front and center as their trusted food waste prevention partner.

Leanpath has long been dedicated to scaling food waste prevention. This is reflected in our mission – to make food waste prevention and measurement everyday practice in the world’s kitchens.

IKEA West Chester, located 30 miles outside Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, has been using the Leanpath food waste prevention platform in its restaurant and bistro for a little over a year. The store measured an initial annualized food waste weight of 14,000 kilograms. By setting goals and keeping the team focused and trained, the store cut its food waste by 20 percent in one year. That translates to nearly 5,000 meals saved from the bin.

Leanpath received awards in the Tech for Good and Special Judges Award categories at the prestigious 2019 Global Good Awards, celebrating companies that are solving some of the world's most intractable problems.

Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman shared his view of the past, present and future of food waste at the 25th annual Chef's Culinary Conference at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City has been a Leanpath client since 2016. Since then they have reduced food waste by 54%, saving 61,000 pounds of food waste from hitting the landfill. We visited the team in Washington, DC, to talk about their success in preventing food waste with Leanpath.

IKEA's Burbank store, in California, has food sales that rank among the highest of the 47 stores in the U.S. On a Saturday, they will sell up to 14,000 items. IKEA co-workers began tracking the store's food waste in February 2017 using Leanpath automated measurement systems and identified its annual waste level to be over 15,000 kilograms. After a year of tracking waste in real time with Leanpath systems—and developing food waste prevention strategies based on that data— IKEA Burbank has shown dramatic improvement: a 30 percent reduct...