How to control food waste in your restaurant
Food waste is one of the biggest modern challenges facing the restaurant industry. As well as negatively impacting your finances, restaurant food waste causes significant harm to our planet. When organic food waste is sent to landfill, it produces a greenhouse gas known as methane, which can have a detrimental effect on both human and environmental health.
Controlling your restaurant food waste can help your establishment save money, reduce your carbon footprint, and boost your reputation amongst today’s eco-conscious customers. We share some top tips on how to control food waste in your restaurant, as well as discussing why you should choose McCarthy Marland for all your restaurant waste management needs.
Top tips for reducing your restaurant food waste
Complete a food waste audit
Understanding how your restaurant produces food waste is the first step towards reducing it. A comprehensive food waste audit can help you identify how this waste is generated within your restaurant. For example, it may be that you are overordering ingredients, or you are serving overly-large portions sizes.
Completing frequent restaurant food waste audits can help you make better decisions with regards to ordering, storing and preparing ingredients. By successfully monitoring this data on a regular basis, you can then begin to create a stringent restaurant waste management programme that is specifically tailored to your individual requirements.
Refine your inventory management
Effectively managing your restaurant’s inventory can help to mitigate overordering, reducing the amount of food that exceeds its expiry date. We highly recommend adopting a first-in first-out (FIFO) system to ensure that older ingredients are used before newer ones, minimising potential spoilage.
There are many digital inventory management systems out there that can help streamline your restaurant’s waste management programme. Software such as nory and Oracle allow you to track your inventory in real time and make smarter decisions when managing expiry dates and reordering stock.
Optimise your menu items
Your restaurant should always aim to design smart menus with food waste reduction at the forefront. Prioritise dishes that use overlapping ingredients and create seasonal menus that can be easily adjusted depending on the quantities of stock available. You could even offer varied portion sizes that allow customers to choose whichever size matches their appetite. These restaurant food waste solutions can help to reduce plate waste and maximise the freshness of ingredients used.
Educate and involve your staff
All team members should be involved in implementing effective restaurant food waste solutions, whether they be front-of-house staff or kitchen workers. This helps to foster a culture of unity and togetherness, with all staff members working together to achieve a shared goal.
For example, serving staff should be encouraged to advise customers on portion sizes and recommend seasonal dishes with ingredients approaching their expiration dates. Kitchen staff should be trained to utilise the entire product when cooking, such as repurposing food scraps for stocks or sauces.
Donate excess ingredients
One of the best ways to prevent food waste whilst making a difference to your local community is by donating leftover food and ingredients. Charities and food banks will usually accept donations that are identified as safe to eat, even if items have surpassed their expiry date. You can read more about the criteria for businesses donating to food banks via the official government website.
Compost restaurant food waste
Whilst restaurant food waste should be mitigated wherever possible, it cannot be avoided entirely. Composting can significantly reduce the environmental impact of your establishment’s food waste, helping to divert waste from landfill by instead processing it for anaerobic digestion. This method converts food scraps into nutrient-rich soil, which can then be used in local allotments, gardens or farms; lowering those harmful greenhouse gas emissions and improving your restaurant’s “green” reputation.
Why partner with a restaurant food waste management company?
Seeking to enhance your restaurant’s sustainability status? McCarthy Marland offers a wide range of innovative food waste solutions to the hospitality industry, including restaurant food waste recycling and restaurant waste collection services. We offer flexible collection times that minimise disruption to your daily operations, ensuring that all organic waste is recycled into renewable energy via anaerobic digestion. With our dedicated waste management facilities achieving an average recycling rate of over 95%, you can count on McCarthy Marland to help improve your restaurant’s eco credentials.
Get in touch with us today to schedule your restaurant’s food waste consultation.