Sherman Cleveland

The importance of minimizing food waste in your restaurant A report by the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) shows that 600,000 tons of food from British restaurants goes to waste every year. Food is not only wasted by people unable to finish their portion, but also by the restaurant staff during preparation. Food waste is typically sent to landfills instead of being recycled. Estimates show that reducing the amount of wasted produce by only 20% could end up saving your business an amount of £2,000 annually. Some of the benefits of minimizing food waste are: Creating a positive business image Positive impact on the environment Improved employee morale Generating more revenue by reducing food costs Inspect every food order Make sure to double check the expiration dates of your products upon arrival. This is a vital step to ensure that the food being used is in good condition and of the highest possible quality. Using below average ingredients can be bad for your finances in more ways than you can imagine. Customers will be less satisfied with the food quality, leave more leftovers and return less often. If you are having any issues with your food order attempt to contact your supplier for a refund or replacement instead of using or throwing anything away. Flexibility is key Different people have different food preferences. Being able to provide different options to different customers is important for maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. Doing small things, like offering vegetarian or vegan versions of meals can really go a long way to attracting different types of customers. Offering different portion sizes also tends to be an all-around beneficial practice. Always offer customers the option to take their food home Most people are too embarrassed to ask for a doggy bag and would rather just leave what they couldn’t eat, that’s why it’s so important for you to ask them if they would rather take their food home with them. An estimated 27% of people are leaving food at the end of their meal, however, 74% are willing to use doggy bags if offered. The “Too Good to Waste” campaign has introduced “The Doggy Box” as a better alternative for customers that would otherwise feel embarrassed by using a typical doggie bag. Be creative Try to make use of your leftovers by offering different recipes. For example, you could use a bag of leftover potatoes to prepare a pie or a mash as a “special of the day”. You could use vegetables in a soup and even offer chips with a “skin-on” option to reduce your food waste to virtually zero. Notice the small things Try to notice what types of dishes keep getting returned from the dining room, analyze what people leave behind. If you start seeing a pattern, then it may be time to improve the dish or the size of the portion. This of course is a trial and error process, but with enough time you will begin to see increased savings, decreased food waste and higher customer satisfaction. Ask for feedback Analyzing leftovers and trying to see how changes affect your customers can all be very helpful, but there’s an even simpler way of finding out what needs to change. Simply ask your customers for honest feedback and try to be specific. Was the desert as described? Was the chicken tender enough? How was the steak? Simple questions like that can really make a difference and let you know in an instant how you could improve the overall quality of all dishes. Organization Proper product storage is an easy and important step to eliminate cross contamination and food spoiling. By labelling when an item has arrived to the kitchen and when it must be used by you can greatly reduce the amount of food that gets spoiled. Placing fresher products behind older items is another quick trick you could use to make use of everything before it’s too late. Don’t assume Most restaurants fear legal repercussions from customers getting ill after consuming their food. This fear results in a lot of perfectly good food being thrown away for the sake of “being safe”. However reality is different. Most of the time the food being thrown away is perfectly fine, but the staff just isn’t sure if that’s the case. With proper research it’s easy to know if an item has gone bad, so there isn’t a need to take risks or make assumptions. Give away If there is a food item that’s going to get spoiled and there is no way for it to be used it is best to simply give it away. There is no reason for perfectly good food to go to the garbage, so instead of throwing it away consider giving it to someone that may really need it.