Food Waste Intelligence

The new year is a time when we reflect on lessons learned and set new goals with renewed energy and focus.  These themes seem particularly relevant as we enter 2020 – the beginning of a decade of action for hitting the UN Sustainable Development Goals – and, specifically, for hitting Target 12.3, that audacious goal of cutting global food waste in half by 2030.  A goal that, if achieved, will directly benefit many of the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals due to the central nature of food in our lives and the many linkages between food waste and global emissions, water, soil health, plastics, oceans, and biodiversity.

Salad bars are vital in high-volume operations. The salad bar concept allows the kitchen to feed a lot of guests with the least amount of labor cost. It gives guests the ability to customize their meals. It offers chefs a way to utilize and repurpose ingredients in a creative and efficient manner. There are many positives to salad bars, but standard displays and operating procedures can also lead to massive amounts of food waste.

In order to meet the UN goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 we need to accelerate adoption of food waste measurement and behavior change around the world. That means understanding the fears and concerns of companies that have the largest potential impact and responding to them with expertise. The Food Loss & Waste Protocol released a conversational whitepaper identifying top objections to measuring food waste with recommendations on how to move the conversation forward. Here is a summary of the top objections to measuring food waste and strategies to overcome them - for a deeper read including case studies, check out the full FLW Protocol publication here.

The holidays can be tough on the planet. Road trips and flights to visit family. Christmas gifts shrouded in plastic. A lot of consumption and waste. As culinary professionals our focus this time of year is on guests and food. We are in the unique position on the front line to make the changes to combat the global food waste problem and be part of the solution. A  lot of food gets wasted this time of year, so what can you do about it? 

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, all food waste is not equal. Based on its GHG footprint, meat waste contributes the largest amount of emissions by weight. Waste a little bit of beef, contribute a lot of GHGs.

But as a recent World Resources Institute report shows, vegetables are actually the biggest contributor to emissions behind beef and seafood, simply because of the sheer volume of vegetables wasted.