Preventing food waste

Did you know that a third(!) of the food produced worldwide is wasted? This wasted food has an estimated value of about one trillion euros and accounts for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions1. Impressive figures, especially in the face of the reality that 870 million people go hungry or are malnourished every day. This must and can be change. That’s what we think and, fortunately, more and more of our clients do as well. By making better use of data, apps and collaborations with circular players, we have sustainable solutions to combat food waste.

Knowledge is power

Food that has not been prepared does not need to be thrown away. It seems so simple. But how can catering teams gain insight into any over-production? With our WasteWatch programme, we monitor how much food disappears into the rubbish bin using smart scales and challenge ourselves to prevent over-production.

Patrick

‘WasteWatch provides good insight and raises awareness about the amount of food thrown away in a company restaurant. The numbers really make it visible to ourselves and our clients. Everything we throw away in pre-consumer food scraps, we put on the scales. From the leaves of greens, apple peels, leftover sandwiches and leftovers from the salad bar to items from the fridge that are past their sell-by date. The system shows us where we waste food. When you have gallons of soup left over every week, you know something is going wrong somewhere. This allows us to set weekly targets together. WasteWatch also uses data to teach us how best to set up and break down a lunch. How many salads and sandwiches should be ready at noon? Which days are the busiest? For our staff, it’s a quest to find a balance between offering enough product versus having to discard product. It can be challenging, because we want to provide good service and not have too little on offer. We also let customers know that we’re managing our inventory more strictly so we don’t have dozens of sandwiches left at the end of lunchtime.’

WasteWatch results

‘WasteWatch makes logging waste so easy. You get a lot of information and it takes little time. It’s information you can immediately turn into action. The figures and amounts were an eye-opener for the team. It really made them want to change.’

Anggia

*

• 31 locations working with WasteWatch

• 22% less food waste in our restaurants

• 5.8 tonnes of food waste prevented

• 10,672 meals saved

• As a result, 40 tonnes of CO2 was avoided, equivalent to 104 economy class flights from Amsterdam to Rome, 142,701 hot water baths saved or 19,340 litres of fuel saved

* Totals since the start of the programme in 2021