Food Waste Intelligence

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).

Consumer awareness of the food waste crisis has more than doubled in the past two years as rising food prices, supply chain challenges, the pandemic, and sustainability concerns are impacting consumer behavior, a new report finds.

The report by Capgemini Research Institute found that 72 percent of consumers are aware of their food waste as compared to 33 percent of consumers before 2020.

Six years ago, recognizing the need to drive increased focus on the global food waste challenge, Leanpath partner Compass Group launched an educational campaign designating the last Wednesday in April as Stop Food Waste Day.

Coming just days after Earth Day–with this year’s theme of “Invest in our Planet”–the timing couldn’t be better, because reducing food waste is one of the single most effective levers that the world has to transform the food system. It also is key to accelerate progress toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and stem climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, however, it is hard to ignore the financial burden the foodservice industry, and consumers in general, are facing. Global food commodity prices hit an all-time high in March following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

Stop Food Waste Day 2022 is a good time to remember that while food waste prevention is one of the most actionable initiatives kitchens can do for the environment, it is also one of the most impactful initiatives for a kitchen’s bottom line.

#1: How Mount Holyoke College used food waste tracking to quickly adapt to COVID-19 changes

As we all adjusted to the challenges of COVID-19, something notable rose to the surface in foodservice: measuring food waste was no longer just a way to cut costs and be more efficient, it became a key tool for learning and adapting to the new normal. What a kitchen wastes is one of the few real-time data points it can use to understand what's working and what's not.

Our top blog post of the year took a deep dive into how Mount Holyoke, a women's college in Massachusetts, USA, leveraged food waste tracking to its fullest.

The challenges faced by the foodservice industry in 2021–rising food and labor costs and disrupted supply chains–put a fine point on the need to prevent food waste and its financial burden. The growing body of evidence connecting food waste and climate change created even more urgency for foodservice organizations.

Working with those organizations in over 40 countries, Leanpath and its partners prevented 14 million pounds of food from going to waste, bringing the total impact since 2004–when Leanpath introduced food waste prevention solutions–to 90 million pounds. 

That equates to 75 million meals kept in the food system for those who need them. And over 284 thousand metric tons of CO² kept out of our skies.

Here are a few other highlights from the year: