Food Waste Intelligence

There are three big reasons the buffet is a key source of food waste. First, it’s challenging to match supply and demand in an all-you-care-to-eat format. The default is overproduction: better to have too much on display than disappoint a customer with too little. Second, a buffet has to be aggressively merchandised. Half empty pans and blank spots on the line kill the look of a bountiful buffet. And third, when faced with that bounty, customers have a hard time gauging their own appetite and will often simply take more than they can ...

More large companies are measuring food waste, a major development in reaching the UN's goal to halve food waste by 2030, a new report illustrates. Three years ago, the United Nation’s outlined its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which includes Target 12.3’s call to halve food waste and reduce food loss by 2030. We now have an update on progress.

The five dining halls on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus turn out close to 12,000 meals per day. They had tracked food waste manually before adopting LeanPath in February 2017. ASU is also using LeanPath's post-consumer waste tracker, Spark. "LeanPath is a lot easier than manual tracking. Easier than we anticipated,” says Aramark foodservice director Kirby Lannom. “I thought it would be difficult to get employees to buy in and use it, but it didn’t take any time.”

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 reduct...