Food Waste Intelligence

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 overproduced food into a profit-generating menu item.  I am always happy to help a fellow chef find a solution.

Outside of being a consultant and a walking recipe database, I do get asked many questions that seem to resurface on a regular basis.  Below are the 5 most common questions that come up; let’s see if these solutions can apply to your kitchen.

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.

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 production and our environment. 

I am delighted to have joined Leanpath in its mission to make food waste prevention everyday practice in the world’s kitchens. I will be working closely with clients globally to help them take action against food waste by way of the data they are able to discover through tracking food waste with Leanpath. 

I have been on the road for the last three weeks visiting client kitchens, engaging with chefs, managers and leadership on the challenges they face in curtailing food waste and seeing first hand the innovative and effective methods and best practices culinary teams have put in place to repurpose food that would have otherwise gone to waste. Some of the most impressive food waste repurposing actions I encountered were: