Food Waste Intelligence

UVA Dine, operated by Aramark, has been tracking food waste with Leanpath since 2018. The team has racked up impressive results using the program, including reducing their food waste by 59%. They have achieved these results by using tracking data to identify food waste instances and trends and addressing them with their kitchen teams.

As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S., Vidant Medical Center in eastern North Carolina began to prepare for the potential of overcrowding, supply chain interruptions, and overwhelming strain on the staff. To support the patients and staff, Vidant’s dining services team jumped in to adapt their operations.

“Our customer base dropped dramatically almost overnight,” said Troy Sheppard, Food & Nutrition Service Line Administrator and Client Executive with Sodexo, which provides dining operations for Vidant Health system. Increased staffing demands created further challenges, as self-serve food lines were converted to staffed stations and heightened sanitation protocols required more labor time. A shifted focus on quick service dining changed the norm even further.

Changing operations and supporting the staff in a pandemic didn’t mean the Sodexo team would abandon their sustainability commitments. On the contrary, Sodexo has continued rolling out its food waste prevention platform, WasteWatch powered by Leanpath (WWxLP), globally, despite the pandemic. WWxLP has deployed at 732 Sodexo sites, including 188 healthcare sites in the US, nearly all since the onset of COVID-19. More than 1,200 Sodexo kitchens globally are currently in the program.

Swedish is the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the Puget Sound, Washington, area. Six of its dispersed facilities utilize the Leanpath platform to prevent food waste. The healthcare foodservice operation at its First Hill campus is run by Corporate Executive Chef Zachary Schwab. First Hill typically has about 1,800 covers a day in patient services, with 600 meals a day retail and around 10 catered events. Schwab has overseen food waste reduction with Leanpath since 2007. That experience has led to the development of system-wide best practices and deep cuts in food waste: a 53 percent reduction in food waste by value and a 40 percent reduction by weight.

Executive Chef Brian Deegan runs the foodservice operation at Marriott’s Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville, Spain. The 150-room hotel has five restaurants and bars, with a third of its F&B revenue from banquet events. Chef Deegan is a self-confessed numbers guy. “I like to run a tight ship,” he says. “I don’t want to sound like a scrooge, but we’re a kitchen not a supermarket. I buy fresh food to sell not to keep on the shelves.” He embraced food waste tracking and the insight it provided on how to be more efficient. And he’s shown big results: a 66 percent reduction in food waste by value, and a 58 percent reduction by weight.

Executive Chef Shaun Woodhouse and his team at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa Edinburgh discovered opportunities to cut their waste and began changing purchasing and prep to drive results, which have been impressive: a 64% reduction in food waste value and a 58% reduction in weight. They’ve maintained these levels over time as Leanpath became a “business as usual” component of their kitchen. “The support from Leanpath has been great.”