Nowadays the current problematic for Restaurants is the food waste. This topic is relevant for all culinary businesses. It concerns not only the financial aspect, but also the environmental impact. If you own a Restaurant, in this article “how to reduce food waste” find some tips and information.
In the last years, the general food waste amounts to approximately 1 billion tonnes, 30% comes from food retailers and culinary businesses.
Even if is utopic and impossible to avoid the food wastage, any restaurants can work with the intention to reduce it.
In any case, you can do something to enhance ecological sustainability by any working phases: at this regard it is important to create standard procedures and to train the staff.
Let’s consider some suggestions going through the main gastronomic operational working phases.
Orders, storage and menu
Food orders must be strategic: always order the food needed by consulting inventory, daily average occupancy and forecast. Afterwards, the food’s storage is fundamental: once delivered, store the food tidy and in the related stores/refrigerators. Routinely check the store/refrigerators degrees.
Label the food by date, order by food type and use the FIFO method (first-in/first-out).
Offer a menu with few meal choices: prefer to choose a limited quantity of ingredients, playing with their combination. Optimal are the in-season ingredients, which are more sustainable and can be stored longer.
Don’t forget to revisit the menu periodically and remove the unpopular dishes.
Moreover, the choice of meal size can help to reduce the food left in the plate. Avoid offers of extreme food quantities: for example, some Restaurants are promoting XXL meals. Despite the marketing strategy, it represents a negative impact on the environment.
Preparation and sale
Check occupancy, forecast and history before to proceed with the food’s preparation. Try to prepare the correct quantity and always communicate with the service staff, in order to sell the meals you need to push out.
Frequently update the inventory and list the food you must prepare first.
If there are remaining ingredients, play with creativity: you can always have a daily menu to choose day by day. Thereby, loyal clients will always have new options, your staff can be motivated by improvising new meals and the ingredients will not be thrown away.
Moreover, consider daily deals for remaining large food quantities: for example, you can promote daily deals on social media. This convenient action for your customers will promote your branding too.
Organize and provide take away containers. Serve the remaining food in the container, tidy and neat.
End of service
By the end of service, check which ingredients have left-over and put aside those who can still be sold the day after, of course based on the quality check.
Furthermore, find the Apps available in your geographic area, where people can buy remaining food for cheaper price. Otherwise, there are some charities groups which can collect the food for people in need. Get informed and join the programs: there are a lot of great initiatives.
Besides that, don’t forget about your staff: offer food to them, so they can enjoy a good meal by relaxing after a working day.
Always recycle in compost garbage and track the quantity of the daily waste food.
This action will be helpful for the next orders and for the future daily food preparation.
Written By
Knowess International
Knowess International helps business owners and department heads working in the hospitality and restaurant industries to develop the necessary skills with targeted consulting.
