Source Reduction: Purchasing

Planning more flexible menus and reducing the amount of food, beverage, and packaging coming in the back door is the first step in any Zero Waste initiative.

CHAPTER 5

Source Reduction: Purchasing

REDUCING WASTE BEGINS AT THE BACK DOOR

While donating food to shelters or delivering compost to local farms is all well and good, these are not profitable activities—in fact, in many cases there is expense involved. Producing less food is the only way to become more efficient and more profitable.

And that means source reduction of food and beverage ingredients as well as packaging.

More than half of operators surveyed (54%) have conducted a food-waste audit either internally or through a third party.¹

Waste in foodservice operations can occur either in the kitchen (“pre-consumer”) or after food is served (“post-consumer”). Approximately 4%–10% of food purchased by foodservice becomes pre-consumer waste.²

Common causes for pre-consumer waste include overproduction, trim waste, mishandling (such as overcooking or holding at the wrong temperature), and product expiration (as with prepared salads) and spoilage.

Extensive menu choices also hinder proper inventory management since large menus require more ingredients on hand. Unpredictable sales fluctuations make planning difficult. All-you-can-eat and buffet-style restaurants tend to have higher levels of pre-consumer waste than full-service restaurants, where food is largely made to order and overproduction can be more readily avoided. Centralized multi-unit operations often lack flexibility to use food creatively. In addition, quick-serve restaurants must often adhere to strict time limits for prepared items.

Off-spec produce allows for lower input costs since it can be used as a lower-cost substitute for retail-grade, cosmetically perfect food. An estimated 35% of off-spec produce is fit for foodservice applications and can be rescued from farms in a safe and cost-effective manner.³

Post-consumer waste often makes up the vast majority of overall food losses, especially those where there is little on-site food preparation and therefore not much kitchen waste. Common causes of post-consumer waste include excessive portion sizes and service methods such as all-you-can-eat buffets and free drink refills, as well as the inclusion of bread, side dishes, and other items that consumers may not want.

With portion sizes increasing significantly over the past 30 years,⁴ post-consumer waste is also on the rise. Although patrons can take uneaten food home, if restaurant patrons don’t finish their portions, research has shown that diners leave 17% of meals uneaten, and 55% of these leftovers stay on the table.⁵

573 million pounds of seafood are lost annually when commercial fishermen catch the wrong species of fish (bycatch) and then discard it.⁶

There are a number of steps that can be taken to address these problems before they occur:

Conduct an audit to determine where waste is occurring; separate organic waste generated by the kitchen from that generated by customers
Utilize better forecasting methods to avoid overordering, and implement just-in-time ordering wherever practical
Buy only nonperishables in bulk
Develop tighter specs for food and beverage purchases (such as specific trim requirements, packaging, or pack size)

Commit to using less-wasteful ingredients (seafood bycatch, off-grade/imperfect produce, bulk and dispensed beverages)
Improve receiving, storage, and stock-rotation practices
Implement waste-reduction menus that emphasize cross-utilization of ingredients and prep, full-product usage, and seasonality
Decrease portion sizes or offer a range of portion-size options to suit guests’ appetites

Offer patrons more choice in items that may be unwanted, such as side dishes
Use portion-control tools when plating
For self-service, limit overconsumption by converting options in bowls, platters, and pitchers to single-serve portions; reduce plate and serving utensil size; use display cooking stations to control portion size and maintain quality
Encourage diners to take home leftovers in low-impact containers

The Packaging Piece

A significant amount of waste generated by foodservice is in the form of packaging—both pre- and post-customer. Moreover, when making food and beverage purchase decisions based on the environment, packaging is most visible to consumers. One in 10 U.S. adults, or roughly 20 million consumers, say they have switched to a different food or beverage brand because it had earth-friendly packaging.⁷

Choose products with reduced plastic and recyclable packaging
Avoid packaging with residual container waste
Look into spoilage-reduction packaging for perishables
Ask your suppliers to take back shipping boxes for reuse or recycling and to keep you informed about new and existing products that are packaged in ways that can reduce waste
Buy regularly used items in bulk or in their concentrated form to reduce packaging
Use dispensed beverages, rather than individual cans and bottles
Use health department-approved, refillable condiment dispensers instead of individual packets
Investigate sustainable cup programs for takeout
Avoid takeout products that are not easily recyclable or not made from recycled content
Limit the amount of napkins, condiments, utensils, etc, given with takeout orders
Offer customers a discount if they bring their own mugs, containers, bags, etc

OPERATOR SPOTLIGHT
At the University of Georgia in Athens, Dining Services worked with the school’s Office of Sustainability to test and implement trayless dining. On a per-semester basis, the program resulted in a 26.7% reduction in plate waste; a 16.4% reduction in water usage; 107,142 pounds of food saved across all dining commons; and 16,550 gallons of water saved across all dining commons.

^{_{Sources: [1] Technomic, “The Benefits of Waste Reduction and How to Achieve Them” (2019). [2] Leanpath, info.leanpath.com/10-ways-to-save-guide (2016). [3] ReFED, “A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste by 20 Percent” (2016). [4] National Institutes of Health (2015). [5] Natural Resources Defense Council, “Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food From Farm to Fork to Landfill” (2017). [6] Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (2015). [7] NPD, Health Aspirations & Behavioral Tracking Service (2019).}}