Food Waste Intelligence

“Missing Food, Missing Data” report suggests we have a long way to go in good data collection. Awareness of the scale of the global food waste problem has been on the rise in recent years, which is a good thing, as most estimates of the amount of food lost or wasted annually without being consumed by humans range from 30% to 50% of total production. That’s neither acceptable nor sustainable. The United Nations has addressed this problem through Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which calls for a 50% cut in per capita food waste at th...

In December of 2015, the U.S. joined nearly every other nation on Earth in approving the language underpinning the Paris Climate Accord – a landmark moment of global collaboration toward addressing the very real threats of climate change stemming from the build-up of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Yet earlier in June, President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Accord, thereby joining Nicaragua and Syria as the world’s only non-supportive countries. At LeanPath, we respectfully disagree with the Presid...

I often get asked, “Chef, how can I motivate my staff to track their food waste?” It’s a good question, and one that comes up often. My simple answer usually is “You can’t.” I am a firm believer that you can’t motivate, but you can inspire. Motivation vs. Inspiration is a well documented topic and one that often leads me back to heated debates I used to get into when I served as the Dean of Culinary. Culinary leaders and chefs often fail to understand a simple fact of human nature: people are intrinsically motivated beings. My student...

Food waste reduction starts with prevention—preventing the food waste from happening in the first place is the clear optimal solution from a social, environmental and economic standpoint. And the first step in prevention is measurement—understanding exactly how much food is being wasted and why, so you know where you’re starting from, can identify opportunities for improvement, and can easily track progress over time. In the ReFED Report, A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste By 20 Percent, waste tracking and analytics is listed as one ...