Food Waste Intelligence

The King Edward’s Trust is 10 secondary schools and 10,500 students in Birmingham, England, with foodservice operated by Alliance in Partnership (AIP)/Sodexo. Since 2023, the school kitchen teams have tracked and prevented food waste using Leanpath’s intelligent food waste management system and together have reduced their waste by 40 percent, with a reduction in the value of their food waste of 50 percent.

For King Edward’s Trust Executive Chef Steven Lowe, the effort is both personal and professional.

“We’ve got a contract with King Edward’s Trust and like everywhere keeping food cost low is part of the day-to-day life, and the Leanpath Trackers are helping us to reduce food waste.”

AIP/Sodexo–and Chef Steven–are also motivated by the positive impact on sustainability food waste reduction has.

“We recognise the connection between food waste and carbon emissions,” AIP/Sodexo states. “That’s why we’ve set an ambitious objective to reduce our food waste 50% by 2025.”

As Chef Steven puts it: “I’ve got two young children, and the world they are going to grow up in is a lot different than the one I grew up in. So, when you toss that crust of bread away, it’s not just a crust of bread. It’s all the water that it took to produce that from the field to the kitchen. Everybody does it and it all adds up. But if we can make small changes, together they can lead to massive change.”

Using Leanpath data to make smart adjustments

In line with Chef Steven’s ethos of small adjustments leading to big change, one of his first operational changes based on food waste data was small, with big cumulative impact: his team stopped trimming carrots and peeling potatoes.

“When we’re making a sauce or a curry, you can’t tell the difference because we will blend it,” he says. “But now we’re getting a little more yield and sending less food waste to landfill where it produces greenhouse gasses. It’s a small change but every day it adds up over the year.”

Leanpath data also showed high levels of bread waste at some of the schools. “Before Leanpath, managers might say we do two loaves of bread a day for morning break toast. But then we saw half of that was getting wasted, and the cost of that over a year, that was a big shock to myself and the teams.”

They have reduced the amount of toast they prep and now have bread leftover for the next day. “Now and again a scenario will pop up and we produce to much, the data always shocks people and helps refocus.”

Bread waste has dropped by 90 percent.

Similarly, Leanpath data revealed that chips--or “fries”--were a high waste item. Chef Steven took the data to his managers. As with the bread, the chip waste was especially high towards the end of service.

“I set a challenge for all 10 sites. I said, ‘I want to know what happens with your last bag of chips.’ Instead of just dropping the full bag into the frier, I had them try a quarter of a bag or a half bag. And then I had them tell me how much was left in the bag after service. Some sites realized they didn’t need that last bag at all. Across the sites we put around £60 back into the freezer for the following week and reduced our food waste.”

Chip waste dropped by 55 percent.

Chef Steven set other challenges for managers, using Leanpath’s AI-enabled SMART Goals feature. A goal was set to reduce sandwich waste by 25 percent. The team focused on reduction and blew past the goal, with a 42 percent cut in sandwich waste.

It was Ramadan when Chef Steven spoke to us, and he said the team was currently reviewing the waste data from the previous year to better forecast during what can be a challenging time to plan appropriately.

“I witnessed it today,” he said. “The fabulous team at Camphill lead by Sasha had steamer trays ready with vegetables ready to cook. But they had reduced how much was in the trays on what they would normally do, and they were holding them back until they knew they were needed.”

Engaging the team and the Trust with data

“The teams were a bit skeptical of food waste tracking at first. But when I showed them that a transaction takes seconds, they bought in. Now they get a kick out of seeing how much money they’ve saved, how much waste they’ve avoided.”

Regional Manager Mark Ryder has seen the engagement. “Sometimes I will see an entry on the tracker and think it’s a bit high, that can’t be right? But then you realize it’s accurate, and it makes you rethink and change your methods. I also like how quick and dynamic it is. When it was first installed some of teams said they would not have time to do it. My response was your walking to the bin to empty your waste. It takes 7 seconds to do an entry. It’s great to see our teams now see Leanpath as part of our kitchen arsenal to fight food waste.

Likewise, the data is engaging the King Edward’s Trust. Leanpath’s Impact Report allows Chef Steven to easily show food waste success across his 10 sites, including financial and sustainability metrics.

“The Trust is now much more aware of our food waste reduction,” he says.

The Trust has always been big into sustainability. I have been asked to do a few practical lessons with students. I always make sure I have the latest Impact Report with me.”

 “We have made a commitment to improving our sustainability and reducing our environmental impact across all our schools,” explains Hoang Nguyen, Head of Estates and Sustainability with the Trust. “One of our key sustainability goals is to reduce food wastage, and the partnership with AIP/Sodexo and the use of Leanpath is a key enabler for us to achieve this.”