Food Waste Intelligence

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.

Chef Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition Services for Boulder Valley School District, in Colorado, USA, and founder of the Chef Ann Foundation has worked with Leanpath to reduce food waste across the district. We also recently collaborated on a new curriculum teaching the importance of food waste prevention to elementary school students.

Staff engagement in food waste prevention pays big dividends. When staff are engaged in tracking food waste, a kitchen gets more complete data, which provides greater insight into what a kitchen is wasting and why. But staff engagement in a mission-driven effort like food waste prevention also leads to better retention and job satisfaction.

One of the best tools to prevent food waste is your menu, and deliberately integrating repurposing into the menu to ensure food is reutilized rather than wasted. In a webinar hosted by Leanpath Executive Chef Robb White, Sodexo chefs from the healthcare, corporate dining and universities segments shared their best practices in reducing food waste through inventory and menu management and staff engagement. Today, we’ll review the discussion on menu planning.