Subtle but Successful: The Common-Sense Food Waste Solutions Hiding in Plain Sight

Insights from the 2025 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit

With so much energy focused on AI, automation, and tech-driven solutions, it’s easy to overlook the practices that have quietly—and consistently—delivered some of the biggest reductions in food waste. Across manufacturing, foodservice, and retail, organizations are reducing waste not by investing in the latest software, but by revisiting their fundamentals.

At the 2025 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit, panelists including Kathy Cacciola (Google Food Team) and Lorenzo Macaluso (Center for EcoTechnology) shared examples of practical strategies that are already working—and ready to scale anywhere.

Below are the core themes that emerged: practical, people-powered, and deceptively simple.

Smarter Planning and Old-Fashioned Ingenuity

Small operational shifts can prevent large amounts of waste—before it happens.

With so many competing priorities, many organizations often overlook the everyday choices that shape how much food gets wasted. Panelists stressed that the biggest wins often come from revisiting the fundamentals: tighter planning, more intentional production, and a willingness to question routines.

Why This Matters

Waste accrues quietly. An overfilled salad bar, an overproduced hot entrée, or a prep step that generates unnecessary scraps can lead to significant loss—costing money, labor, and emissions. When operations run on autopilot, these small inefficiencies go unnoticed.

What It Looks Like in Practice

Planning, Production, and Smarter Service Windows

Kathy Cacciola described Google’s approach as grounded in “basic, almost boring fundamentals”—but the results are anything but.

Foundational practices include:

• Planning purchases and production tightly: “We look closely at how many people are expected on site, what they typically eat, and where overproduction tends to happen. It sounds simple, but accurate forecasting is one of the most overlooked tools we have.”

• Being intentional about what goes on the line: “Once we put food out on the line, then that food can no longer be either repurposed or donated,” she explained. “So we’re really mindful of how much we display at any given time.”

• Shrinking the buffet toward the end of service: Rather than presenting full pans of every option up until closing, Google transitions to pre-plated or plated-to-order service during lower-traffic windows.

This change did more than cut waste—it improved the dining experience. As Kathy put it:

"When you’re served by a chef and they’ve thoughtfully put something on a plate for you, it’s a nice experience. It feels intentional."

Google tested this pre-plating approach and saw outstanding results:

• A 57% reduction in overproduction

• Less time spent prepping excess food, leading to labor efficiencies

• Less post-service waste, which reduced hauling and disposal costs

Cacciola emphasized that none of these changes required new technology—just a willingness to rethink default behavior.

Training, Culture, and Behavioral Change

Even the best SOP won’t work unless someone performs it—every day.

Panelists agreed on one universal truth: real progress depends on people. The most effective organizations treat waste reduction not as a technical exercise, but as a cultural one.

Why This Matters

Food waste prevention, donation, and diversion all rely on human action. Someone must portion accurately, store products correctly, rotate inventory, communicate issues, question assumptions, and speak up before food is lost.

As Lorenzo Macaluso noted:

“People are in the food business because they love food… and intuitively they know they don’t want to waste it.”

That emotional connection, when supported by the right structures, becomes one of the most powerful tools an organization has.

What Effective Culture Change Looks Like

Making Food Waste a Visible Organizational Priority

Panelists emphasized that frontline teams are more likely to follow through on practices when leadership signals that waste reduction is part of “how we do business.” This could mean sharing waste metrics at standups, recognizing staff for innovations, celebrating wins, or weaving waste goals into safety and quality frameworks.

Empowering Staff to Surface Ideas

Chefs, warehouse pickers, line cooks, and receivers often notice waste first. Giving people space to voice ideas can uncover surprisingly practical solutions.

Lorenzo shared that CET often asks clients:

• What slows you down?

• What gets in your way?

• What part of the process feels wasteful or frustrating?

This opens the door to staff-driven fixes.

As Lorenzo put it:

“If staff feel heard, they’re more invested in the process.”

Doing the Easy Things—Every Day

Consistency—not complexity—drives results.

When the panelists were asked to share one recommendation everyone should adopt, they didn’t choose new tools, systems, or technology. They all circled back to the same deceptively simple truth: the biggest gains come from doing the easy, obvious things—consistently.

These aren’t revolutionary ideas. They’re the unglamorous basics that every operation already knows how to do. But the panelists agreed that across the supply chain, even well-run facilities fail to execute them with regularity.

As Google’s Kathy Cacciola put it:

“The hard part is doing the easy stuff—everybody, everywhere, every day. It’s like dental flossing. Everyone knows it’s good for you. Everyone knows it’s easy. And yet… not everyone does it every day.”

As CET’s Lorenzo Macaluso explained:

“With wasted food, somebody still has to do something—the right thing—each and every day. You can’t automate your way past that. It’s a culture of daily habits.”

Examples of the “Easy Things” That Matter

Right-sizing buffet displays

Google shared that one of the most reliable ways to reduce waste is simply offering less food at once, particularly near the end of service. This prevents pounds of food from being produced and displayed—and therefore rendered ineligible for donation or repurposing—when diner traffic naturally slows.

This is not a sophisticated intervention. It’s an adjustment in timing, awareness, and communication between kitchen and service teams.

Storing inventory correctly

In warehouse and distribution environments, the basics are everything: put the right items in the right place, build stable pallets, keep aisles clear, ensure visibility and accessibility.

The Future of Food Waste Reduction Is Already Here

The most powerful solutions aren’t always new—they’re often the ones we’ve been overlooking. Smart planning, behavioral shifts, and everyday consistency drive measurable impact across the supply chain.

The good news? These approaches are:

• Low cost

• Easy to pilot

• People-powered

• Scalable today

Explore even more actionable, low-lift food waste solutions by watching the full session recording from the 2025 Food Waste Solutions Summit.