To support Food Waste Action Week, we’re sharing our thoughts on how chefs can reduce waste in the kitchen to help the planet and their costs.
According to WRAP, food waste across the UK hospitality and foodservice sector costs more than £3 billion each year. That’s a staggering amount of wasted food and money. Given the environmental impacts of producing food, current supply chain issues and additional cost-of-living pressures on everyone's budgets, food waste is simply a big no-no.
However, for many time-and-staff-strapped-operators, focusing on reducing food waste is often much easier said than done. Here are our top five tips for chefs to help you crack down on food waste in your commercial kitchen.
1. Is fresh really always best?
Unfortunately, fresh food can spoil quickly. Weigh up the pros and cons of using fresh ingredients versus frozen or tinned. Or, do you have the space to batch-prepare and then freeze the staples on your menu, preserving fresh ingredients and potentially saving you time in the long run?
2. Prioritise being organised.
Tricky to do when you’re busy and/or short-staffed, but over-ordering and loosing track of inventory and best before dates all lead to waste - and have an effect on your margins. Can you improve in these areas?
3. Lean on your specials board and don’t be afraid to run out!
Get creative and use up excess ingredients in clever specials. Mix it up and offer variety by using what you have - you might encourage people to try something new!
4. Monitor portion size and waste.
Not everyone has time to carefully measure and track all of their food waste but keeping an eye on where portions may be too big can help you to make careful adjustments. Or, be sure to offer customers the option to take excess food away with them to eat later – something that may well become more popular as consumers also want to reduce their food waste.
5. Embrace a bit of DIY in the kitchen.
Are there things you can make yourself out of leftovers? When thinking about ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, can you whizz up leftovers into soups, fry them in frittatas or bake them into snacks or sides?
