Food Waste Intelligence

Novotel Brisbane is a 296-room hotel located in the city’s business district. Executive Chef Sean Collins has focused his food waste tracking at the breakfast buffet, which serves 150-400 guests daily. The savings he's realized have been reinvested in the kitchen, leading to better product and steady menu pricing. “The whole exercise has bolstered our competitive edge. Not having to increase our prices to compensate for cost of goods: that’s given us a head start above our competitors.”

Collins has lead his team to a 66 percent reduction in waste value and 62 percent cut in waste weight.

IKEA Lyssach, in northern Switzerland, serves 6,000 to 8,000 meals in a six-day work week. For the past year, it has been tracking food waste with LeanPath at its restaurant, co-worker restaurant, bistro and Swedish Food Market. The food waste data has driven targeted prevention strategies that brought a 50% reduction in food waste cost and a 45% reduction food waste weight in one year.

Everybody talks about a “global food system,” but one of the biggest problems with that system is that it has never been managed as a system. We measure the success of a crop based on production per acre and we measure the cost of a tomato based on the price we pay at the grocery store. But what about all the other costs wrapped up in agriculture: the impact on biodiversity, the negative results of pesticide use, the treatment of workers, the impact of food waste.

New research on behalf of the U.N.’s Champions 12.3 finds there is a strong business case for foodservice operators serving hospitals, schools, sports arenas and other facilities to reduce food waste. The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste: Catering shows that for every $1 caterers invested in programs to curb food waste, they saved more than $6 in operating costs. (“Catering” here refers to “contract catering” or “foodservice contract management.”)

Canada has a $31 billion food waste problem, according to recent research. When you add in resources, energy, water and land, it tops $100 billion in waste that builds even more of an impetus to act. Chartwells, a sector of Compass Group, feeds over 1 million Canadian students each day, and hosted the Stop Food Waste Day campaign on campuses across the country today to ensure their guests and associates know how they can help put a dent in this $100 billion problem.