Food Waste Intelligence

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.

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.

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.

Working in thousands of kitchens in over 30 countries, with foodservice clients large and small, Leanpath is now preventing food waste globally at a rate of 1 pound every 2 seconds, or 1 kilo every 4 seconds.