What is food waste and why should I care about it?
Food waste, often referred to as food loss is any edible food that goes uneaten at any stage. This ranges from crops that rotted in the field, all the way to food that spoiled in a restaurant kitchen before it could be served. It also includes unfinished meals left on the plate at a restaurant, scraps from preparing a meal, or the spoiled fruit you threw out in your kitchen at the end of the week.
In this first article of a two-part series, we dive into why dining establishments and institutions should care about restaurant food waste reduction. To learn about how restaurants, institutions, and food service equipment manufacturers can pitch in, check out the second article in the series called How to Reduce Food Waste in Restaurants.
Restaurant Food Waste Reduction will positively impact the businesses bottom line
There are many significantly important social reasons to focus on restaurant food waste reduction. For better or worse, the bottom line for any business is often the driver for change.
Let us revisit this statistic: as much as 10% of food purchased by restaurants is wasted before it ever reaches customers. This means that even a reduction of waste by half could decrease annual spending on inventory by 5%.
We know intuitively that some amount of food is wasted at every step of the supply chain. This begins with crops rotting in the fields, logistics causing late deliveries, and rejected food on the basis of color or appearance. Each segment of the supply chain must cultivate and pay for more food than will ever get consumed to stay ahead of the losses. Consider an improvement in food waste at each link in the chain. The overall cost of products to the restaurant could go down. Restaurant food waste reduction at all levels from the field to the plate can save dining establishments money, improving their bottom line.
If the overall cost of food went down, a restaurant could begin buying higher quality ingredients for the same price. This would enable a restaurant to offer higher quality dining options at the same or lower cost to their customers.
Restaurant Food Waste Reduction Can Improve Employee Morale
Whether you are a mission-oriented person who wants to better the world, or just an employee trying to make a paycheck, nobody likes to waste food. Most of us have been conditioned from a young age to abhor wasting food. Someone worked hard to put the food on the table, and you had better appreciate it. Then we reach the stage in life where we pay for the food from our own paycheck. It becomes even more painful to throw food away. Finally, the human spirit of survival reminds us of the significance of being able to eat. Efforts made in restaurant food waste reduction are something that everyone can get behind.
Even in the position of an employee of a restaurant who is not paying for the food which is being wasted, most people still do not like to be wasteful. Managers who are responsible for adhering to financial metrics, even further detest food waste in the kitchen. In the end, continued wasting of food is bound to affect the morale of a restaurant team. Low morale can lead to costly turnover in the kitchen and will eventually reduce the quality of the customer experience.
Restaurant Food Waste Reduction Can Improve Brand Image
The typical consumer has become much more aware of the staggering amounts of food wasted every day. Dining establishments that make restaurant food waste reduction part of their mission will tend to maintain existing patrons and attract new customers who care.
Improvements to the brand image do not end with restaurant food waste reduction. From the customer vantage point, it is simply an idea that makes us feel good. If a restaurant reduces its waste by 50% and expends no effort to market this fact, it is likely that its patrons will never notice the difference. Let us return to the fact that restaurant food waste reduction can positively impact the bottom line.
What might an establishment do with this newfound money? Serve higher-quality foods or offer better service without having to charge the customer more. Restaurant food waste reduction could lead to increased return customers.
Where to begin with Restaurant Food Waste Reduction
Now you are ready to learn how to join the restaurant food waste reduction movement. Check out the next article in this two-part series called How Technology Can Reduce Food Waste in Restaurants. We discuss how restaurants and foodservice equipment manufacturers can work together towards the shared mission of restaurant food waste reduction.