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.

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, reinforces the opportunity foodservice operations have to address their customer’s top-of-mind environmental concerns by addressing food waste.

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.

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 Goals and stem climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, however, it is hard to ignore the financial burden the foodservice industry, and consumers in general, are facing. Global food commodity prices hit an all-time high in March following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

Stop Food Waste Day 2022 is a good time to remember that while food waste prevention is one of the most actionable initiatives kitchens can do for the environment, it is also one of the most impactful initiatives for a kitchen’s bottom line.

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.