Food Waste Intelligence

While overall food waste fell in the UK by an average 7 percent per person between 2015 and 2018, food waste in foodservice and hospitality rose 7 percent.

According to a new report from the Waste Resources and Action Programme (WRAP), total UK food waste dropped from 10 million tonnes in 2015 to 9.5 million tonnes in 2018. An improvement that puts the region on track to meet the “Courtauld 2025” goal of a 20 percent per person reduction by 2025.

But the report shows the need for more work in the foodservice sector that focuses on the “Target, Measure, Act” formula of food waste prevention. Under this approach, foodservice operations set a food waste reduction target, measure their food waste and act on the trends that measurement shows. “We have shown how measuring food waste as part of a ‘Target, Measure, Act’ approach works for business,” WRAP CEO Marcus Gover states in the report.

The Target, Measure, Act process matches the Leanpath solution and product suite for food waste prevention.

“The hospitality and [foodservice] sector has an estimated 300,000 sites [in the UK]... employing more than 3 million people serving more than 8 billion meals each year,” states the report. “Given the complex, diverse and fragmented nature of the sector, a ‘one size fits all’ approach to food waste measurement is not suitable.”  

Leanpath offers the broadest suite of food waste measurement tools of any solution provider for just this reason: one size does not fit all.

Other findings from the report include:

• Food waste from retail outlets increased by 6 percent during the period.
• Food manufacturing, on the other hand, saw a 10 percent reduction in its waste.
• Households saw a reduction of 6 percent.

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