Food Waste Intelligence

As awareness of the connection between food waste and climate change grows globally, a new report illustrates the environmental impact of China’s food waste in stark detail. More than a quarter of food produced for human consumption in China is lost or wasted each year. The carbon footprint of that waste is equal to the entire emissions of a country the size of the United Kingdom.

Food is thrown away and wasted due to a variety of reasons—overproduction, spoilage, expiration, and so on. At Leanpath, we use "mishandling" as a loss reason to define food that is unfit for consumption and must be thrown away due to improper handling during production. There are a myriad of examples of improper handling of food during production, but let’s focus on the most common occurrences I see in a kitchen and what you can do to avoid them.

Peels, pulp, cores, rinds, stems. When you prep fruits and vegetables you end up with trim. And for the majority of kitchens using Leanpath, trim waste ranks as their second biggest source of waste (behind overproduction). But that trim doesn’t have to lead to trim waste. You can maximize usage of this product, making better use of your food spend along the way. Remember, you paid for that rind, so why just throw it out? Here are 18 ideas to get better use out of that often overlooked and underutilized fruit and vegetable trim.

Restaurants deal with two primary costs: food and labor. In the current foodservice environment, kitchens have to get truly creative in order to meet the financial obligations of the business. Labor cost is and will always be a struggle to get a handle on. Too much labor and money is wasted, not enough and your business and customer satisfaction suffers.

This is a recurring feature where LeanPath Executive Chef Robb White examines real food waste images from LeanPath 360s and shares insights based on what he sees.