Reducing the quantity of food waste you produce will save you money, because you will buy less and save on waste disposal charges. Plus, by wasting less you will also reduce your environmental impact and your carbon footprint.
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1. Reducing food waste
Food waste is more than likely one of the heaviest and largest items in your bin and costs a lot for disposal. Filling just one 240 litre food waste wheelie bin every week, costs you £12,500 a year. This is likely to be in excess of £3,500. This takes into account the true cost of food waste, which is not just the cost of disposal. After all, you also spent time and money buying, storing and cooking food.
2. What do you know about your food waste?
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Where does it come from?
How much is through spoilage in storage, during preparation and from plate waste (i.e. customer leftovers)?
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Measure your waste
Where possible get an idea of the amount of food wasted by weighing or counting numbers of bins or buckets. Don’t worry about being very accurate – it is just to give you a general idea.
This starting point will show you the major areas of waste and what is costing you the most money. Once you have implemented changes, you can repeat the measurements and should be able to see the areas where you have reduced waste and saved money.
3. Top tips to reduce food waste
The most appropriate ways for your business to reduce food waste will depend on the kind of food service provided. Once you have identified where waste is occurring you can adjust your practices. You can avoid a lot of waste by reviewing the following areas:
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Purchasing practices
- Only buy what you need
- Bulk buy non-perishable items
- Have one person in charge of purchasing to avoid duplication of orders and develop relationships with suppliers
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2
Menu planning and portion sizes
- Plan menus, and use seasonal, local produce
- Offer side dish elements (such as side salads) as an option rather than as standard
- Offer different portion sizes to suit customers’ varying appetites
- Offer customers the option to take away anything not eaten in a carry out box or save it and use it the following day for staff lunches
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3
Storage methods
- Check fridge and freezer temperatures regularly
- Use air-tight containers
- Use first in first out system of stock control food preparation practices
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4
Food preparation practices
- Decrease preparation waste by reducing trimmings of vegetables, meat and fish
- Use carcasses, bones and trimmings etc. to prepare stock for sauces or soups
- Employ "nose to tail eating" i.e. develop menu dishes that use less popular cuts such as offal
- Manage variable demand by tracking busy periods / times of the day and year and by ordering stock and preparing food accordingly
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Did you know?
When food waste breaks down in landfill it produces methane. This greenhouse gas is many times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. In fact, food and drink production accounts for approximately 20% of Scotland’s carbon footprint.
4. Recycling of food waste
The greatest opportunities to make cost savings come from preventing edible food from being wasted. However, some food waste is unavoidable. If the waste could not be prevented or reused, it can be recycled, provided you separate it from other waste.
You can approach your waste contractor or local authority if you have any queries about the food waste collection service in your area.
5. Surplus food redistribution
Food redistribution may be an option if you have surplus food. By this, we mean that you make food available, which would otherwise have ended up as waste, for people to eat. Around 250,000 tonnes of the food that goes to waste each year is still edible. Companies, charities and individuals can all benefit from the redistribution of surplus food.
Read Zero Waste Scotland's Food Redistribution Guide for more info.
6. Hospitality Zero case studies
Food waste costs Scottish hospitality outlets an average of £10,000 a year, with the equivalent of one in six meals served ending up straight in the bin. It's a huge drain on business resources. But it also contributes significantly to climate change. Rotting food, after all, releases greenhouse gasses like methane and CO2.
Hospitality Zero was a pilot project launched by VisitScotland. This was part of our Destination Net Zero and COVID-19 Tourism Recovery programme. Our goal was to support hospitality businesses to become more resilient and sustainable.
Who did what?
Six venues from the Greater Glasgow area took part in the pilot. We tasked them with measuring and monitoring their food waste over a two-to-four-week period. They separated their waste into three waste streams – plate waste, preparation waste and spoilage. Afterwards, they measured it to provide insight into how much food was being wasted and where it came from.
What did we learn?
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What did we find?
The Hospitality Zero project identified potential cost savings of £26,307. This ranged from approximately £2,000 - £9,000 per participating venue.
The opportunities identified through the project could prevent up to 13.5 tonnes of food waste – the equivalent of 77 tonnes of CO2. Savings were mostly centered around:
- Portion sizing
- Continued Measuring, Monitoring & Targeting (MM&T)
- Increasing staff awareness
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Identify the source
Restaurants don’t always know where most of their waste is coming from, even if they think they do!
A third of venues were surprised to find their highest source of food waste was not what they had initially thought. Knowing where waste is coming from is the first step in effectively tackling it.
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Behavioural change is key!
Many venues expressed concern at how challenging or time-consuming weighing food waste would be. At the end of the exercise participants told us they found MM&T much easier than expected and simply incorporated it into their daily routine. Several venues have even committed to continuing the exercise.
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There’s plenty more to do!
Hospitality venues are stretched for time and resources. Thus, taking the time to think about how to reduce food waste can often feel like wishful thinking. But our project has shown how some small changes can produce real financial and environmental results.
Bar Varia is a Bavarian themed restaurant overlooking the indoor snow slope at the XS sports centre in Braehead, Glasgow. Almost all of Bar Varia’s customers are "walk ins", coming in for refreshment after, or during, a session on the slopes.
Customer & stock forecasting challenges
Unpredictable customer forecasting can make it hard for the kitchen to predict how busy or quiet they are likely to be. This makes stock management challenging and contribute to food waste through spoilage.
Hospitality Zero Monitoring Measuring and Targeting (MM&T) exercise confirmed this. 58% of the restaurant’s total food waste came from spoilage – almost three times the industry average (21%). Over the course of a year, spoilage waste alone would weigh an estimated 1.5 tonnes and cost the site over £5,500.
Targeting avoidable food waste – spoilage solutions
Fortunately, there are many things that restaurants can do to reduce spoilage. As part of the project, Bar Varia identified over £2,000 of potential savings for the bar, through measures such as:
- Introducing regular menu specials
- Reviewing the stock control process
- Purchasing a vacuum pack machine.
They managed to identify items for quick sale, i.e. identifying food that will spoil soon and selling it as promotional limited dishes. But they also managed to extend the shelf life of fresh produce.
Visit the Bar Varia websiteThe Hospitality Zero project was a great pilot project to be a part of. It provided us with some valuable insight into our food waste and where we can work to reduce it. Knowing that spoilage is high for us, we’re now actively making changes to some of our practices. By targeting foods before they become waste, we save food and money from ending up in the bin.
Bloc+ is a vibrant late night music bar. It's a popular city centre destination with the kitchen open from midday to 3 am, seven days a week, and easily seats around 1,500 guests a week. The venue prides itself on offering customers value for money. As such, they serve generous portions of “dirty comfort food” at affordable prices.
Big portions, bigger overheads?
As part of the Hospitality Zero food waste project, Bloc+ measured their food waste over a two-week period. During this time, they measured customer plates, menu preparation, and spoilage over a two-week period. The results showed that Bloc+ generated almost 14.5 tonnes of food waste from customer plates a year, meaning that they binned 75% of their total food.
The hidden cost of big portion sizes
You might think that leftover food doesn’t cost restaurants any money as the customer has already paid for it. But in fact, plate waste has many hidden financial implications. Think of wasted labour, energy, ingredients, and disposal costs. For Bloc+, the project estimated that plate waste alone costed up to £31,440 a year. Not to mention the environmental cost from greenhouse gas emissions!
The financial case for reducing plate waste – savings & sales
The Hospitality Zero Measuring, Monitoring and Targeting (MM&T) exercise helped. It identified foods that were most commonly left on plates. This allowed Bloc+ to target where portion sizes could be most effectively adapted. By first focusing on “hot spot” items, reducing plate waste by just 10% could save Bloc+ over £3,000 a year.
Reducing plate waste can help save money through fewer associated overheads. But there are even more revenue opportunities, such as wider menu sales such as sides, desserts, and drinks.
We knew that customer plates was our biggest sources of food waste at Bloc+. But the Hospitality Zero project really helped us to understand the scale of it. By attaching a financial value to food waste and seeing how much we’re spending unnecessarily. We’re motivated to start making changes to reduce over overheads – and emissions!
Café Gandolfi has been a firm fixture of Glasgow’s hospitality scene for decades. And it continues to lead the way in serving quality seasonal and local ingredients. The café is an avid proponent of sustainability and making the most of every ingredient to reduce food waste. So, Director Seumas MacInnes was keen to take part in the Hospitality Zero project to see where else the café could make improvements.
Perceived and actual waste streams
Conversations with staff at Café Gandolfi suggested that customer plate waste was minimal. So it couldn't be a big source of food waste at the restaurant. But the Hospitality Zero Measuring, Monitoring and Targeting (MM&T) exercise showed otherwise. It turned out that plate waste accounted for over half of total food waste generated at the restaurant. That's almost 20% higher than the industry average.
Stepping up to the plate waste
By identifying where food waste is highest, Café Gandolfi can now target plate waste for most effective waste reduction action. Reviewing specific items that are frequently left uneaten, such as sides and bread, can narrow down the solution still. Indeed, the Hospitality Zero project identified savings opportunities of up to £700 a year should they reduce plate waste by as little as 10%.
At Café Gandolfi, we like to think that we’ve been proactive in making sustainable changes to our operations for some time now. So, we were excited to participate in the Hospitality Zero and turn our attention to food waste. This exercise really helped to shine a light on where our food waste is coming from and spot recurring patterns across the month. Doing so has helped us become more time and resource efficient through better informed decision making.
Targeting over prepared food as a source of food waste
Palomino’s is an Italian restaurant situated within the Ingliston Country Club Estate. It serves over 2,000 guests a week, including those staying in the on-site hotel and holiday lodges. As a venue catering for locals as well as seasonal trade, predicting the number of nightly diners can be challenging.
Food waste from over-prepared items
Monitoring Measuring and Targeting (MM&T) is food waste exercise as part of the Hospitality Zero project. During a four-week run, Palomino’s unexpectedly found that one of the most common sources of food waste was from over-prepared menu items.
More effective preparation & waste forecasting through MM&T
Palomino’s estimates food preparation levels. Like most venues, they use customer bookings recorded on their online reservation system. Doing so provides a rough idea of the how many guests they can expect each night.
Through MM&T's exercise, Palomino’s found that waste from over-prepared items was consistently highest at the beginning of the week. Every Monday – Wednesday, they generated an average of over 13 kg a day. Insight like this can help restaurants adapt preparation levels to better meet their needs and reduce food waste.
MM&T exercises can be more effective in highlighting specific trends in waste – such as what and how much is being wasted, when. Palomino’s could save in the region of £4,000 and 2 tonnes of food waste a year if they would continue with MM&T. This is according to Hospitality Zero project's conservative estimation.
Taking part in VisitScotland’s Hospitality Zero food waste project is the latest step we’ve taken to reduce our environmental impact. Thanks to their support, we’ve found ways to save 4.5 tonnes of food going to waste per year.
Cocktail bar and pub The Gate, situated in Glasgow’s iconic Gallowgate, is one of the city’s leading venues working to write food waste off the menu. The team have already made huge progress in reducing food waste. Some examples are clever menu designs or the adoption of innovative culinary practices.
Menu design
The bar has significantly reduced their use of citrus fruits – a common source of waste in bars and restaurants. Instead, they use citric acid to replicate the taste. When they do use citrus, they keep the peels to make oleo saccharum, a flavoured sugar for in in-house syrups. Non-edible garnishes have been completely removed, meaning minimal waste comes back from customers - if any.
Innovation
The Gate use innovative techniques to ensure as little waste – and money – as possible goes down the drain. The bar infuses spent wine and flat bubbly with fruits to turn it into homemade vinegars and shrubs to flavour cocktails. The bar also saves 10 pints of beer a week in wastage. By combining the beer left in the lines with leftover bread ends from their toastie menu, they make a tasty beer and bread syrup!
We identified key waste streams and looked at waste as a potential resource. Thus we’ve eliminated the need for a separate food waste bin, which is a great feeling!
The Prancing Stag is a cosy, family-owned restaurant in Jordanhill. Popular within the neighbourhood, it's considered a hidden gem of Glasgow’s West End. The venue actively takes steps to enhance its sustainability and reduce waste. This includes participating in the Plate up for Glasgow food waste campaign in 2021.
Quantifying and pinpointing
The Prancing Stag didn’t feel that they produced a lot of food waste. But they were unsure of actual waste volumes, or how this compared to industry benchmarks. Through the Monitoring, Measuring and Targeting (MM&T) exercise, they quantified waste and pinpointed where it came from. The restaurant found preparation waste was their highest source of food waste. It represented 71% of all food waste generated – a much higher proportion of in-house waste than the industry average.
Preparation improvement
The team at The Prancing Stag already adopt many best practice kitchen techniques to reduce food waste. This included:
- Cross menu items
- Menu specials
- Pre-portioning items
- Using equipment such as vacuum packing
Thus high preparation waste came as a surprise.
Through the Hospitality Zero project, a renewed awareness of avoidable food waste came into focus. The restaurant identified opportunities for preparation waste improvement initiatives. Spoilage logs and staff training found potential savings of up to £2,000 and 7 tonnes of CO2 a year!
The Hospitality Zero project was a great opportunity for us to have a fresh pair of eyes look at what we do. It highlighted opportunities for improved sustainability that we might have overlooked. The amount of financial savings that we can make from such low investment tweaks in our day-to-day business has been a real surprise. And we’re keen to implement recommendations from the project right away!
The Slanj is a bustling rural country pub and restaurant situated near the banks of Loch Lomond and the Arrochar Alps. Popular with visitors, it's proud of offering guests generous Scottish hospitality. This includes when it comes to portion sizes.
Challenges for rural restaurants
Unlike urban food businesses, certain rural venues are not required to separate food waste from general waste. This makes tracking food waste challenging, with little information on how much or what food is actually going into the bin. Their remote location has also made it difficult for The Slanj to receive reliable oil recycling collections.
Empowering decision makers through Measuring, Monitoring and Targeting (MM&T)
As part of the Hospitality Zero project, the restaurant took up a two-week challenge. They separated, measured, and monitored food waste across plate, preparation and spoilage streams. And results found that 65% of the venue’s total food waste came from customer plates – almost twice that of the industry average. By isolating and quantifying waste streams, The Slanj can now prioritise targeting plate waste. Think of reviewing portion sizes, for greatest savings.
Oil filtration technology
Using up to an average of 1,500 litres a year, not only is cooking oil challenging to sustainably dispose of, it’s also a significant expense for The Slanj. Hospitality Zero identified that using an oil filtration system could reduce their oil consumption by 35%. This will lead to potential savings in the region of £1,400 to £2,300 a year, from reduce purchase and disposal costs.
The Slanj is proud to have taken part in VisitScotland’s Hospitality Zero – a project focusing on reducing food waste. Thanks to their help, we’ve found ways to save over a tonne of food waste, and 11 tCO2e, a year!
7. Further advice
For more information on opportunities to reduce and recycle food waste see:
Food waste toolkit
zerowastescotland.org.ukTo support you in your journey, Zero Waste Scotland has developed a food waste reduction page.
Love food hate waste
scotland.lovefoodhatewaste.comProviding recipe ideas, hints and tips for preventing food waste and reusing leftover ingredients.
Guardians of Grub
guardiansofgrub.comHelping the Hospitality and Food Service industry rise up against the 1.1 million tonnes of food thrown away every year.
Hospitality and food service
zerowastescotland.orgSupport for hospitality and food service to reduce food waste
Let's Do Net Zero
netzeronation.scotLet's Do Net Zero made a toolkit to help you support the food waste campaign and raise awareness with your own…
Eating greener
netzeronation.scotLearn how to prevent food waste, manage food preparation, and reuse and the amount of waste going to a landfill.