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Waste Not, Want Not - Getting a Grip on Food Waste

Wasted food costs the restaurant industry over $25 billion, ReFED, a collaboration of more than 50 business, nonprofit, foundation and government leaders committed to reducing food waste in the United States, reports in its Restaurant Food Waste Action Guide.

The issue is a massive missed opportunity for restaurant operators to avoid a waste of time, money, labor and nourishment. Inde- pendent restaurants are uniquely suited to take action here because they have the freedom to act alone rather than seek corporate approval. More good news: while many food waste solutions are cost-efficient to implement, ReFED estimates that every dollar spent on food waste prevention returns $8 in cost savings.

To cut food waste, ReFED recommends a hierarchy of solutions. The top-tier solutions prevent food from being wasted in the first place through process-side changes: smarter purchasing, inventory and creative reuse of purchased items. The next best solutions recover viable food and feed it to other people.

It's no surprise the restaurant sector is a major contributor of food waste, from uneaten food tossed in the bin after a meal to food that spoils before it's served. The amount - and true cost - of food waste is staggering: Full-service restaurants rack up 7.3 million tons of wasted food each year. For limited-service restaurants, food waste totals 4.1 million tons per year.

Food recovery solutions keep food out of landfills where it creates harmful methane gas as it decomposes. At the bottom of the hierarchy is food recycling solutions, which divert food out from landfills to anaerobic digestion sites, or even pigpens (yes, future bacon can dine on treated food waste).

400,000 Tons of Prevention

Preventative solutions are not only easy to implement in independent restaurants, they save the most food and money. ReFED estimates these solutions keep close to 400,000 tons of food waste out of landfills and provide an additional $620 million in profit per year.