Restaurants and Foodservice
Stakeholder Recommendations
Restaurants and Foodservice
Stakeholder RECOMMENDATIONS
Restaurants and Foodservice
Summary
Foodservice includes businesses, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal prepared outside the home, inclusive of restaurants, catering, cafeterias, and the hospitality sector. After being hit especially hard by COVID-19 closures, some Restaurants and Foodservice businesses began to explore cost-cutting measures, which included a greater focus on food waste reduction. But like Retailers, Restaurants and Foodservice businesses serve end customers, and as such face similar demands when it comes to product offerings – even at lower-end outlets, consumers expect that they will get what they want when they want it, forcing businesses to overstock to accommodate fluctuations in demand.
Restaurants and Foodservice businesses generated 12.7M tons of surplus food in 2023, more than 85% of which went to landfill or was incinerated as waste. Less than 1% of this surplus was donated – mainly because it’s more difficult to transport, store, and distribute food that is already prepared. More than 45% of the total surplus was generated by full-service restaurants, and nearly 70% of the total surplus came from plate waste, or customers not eating what they have taken or been served.
Foodservice is a challenging sector because of the diversity of models; restaurants, cafeterias, buffets, hotels, and other establishments all serve food to customers in similar but unique ways. However, behind the challenge lies a huge opportunity to not only reduce waste in their own operations, but also to make it harder for consumers to waste food – through education and through changing the environment in which food is consumed.
17.2%
Total Surplus Food in 2023 by Restaurants and Foodservice
12.7M Tons
Causes
Plate Waste - 8.85M Tons (69.6%)
Overproduction - 1.48M Tons (11.7%)
Catering Overproduction - 1.21 Tons (9.5%)
Destinations
Landfill - 10.1M Tons (79.2%)
Incineration - 1.12M Tons (8.8%)
Composting - 1.11M Tons (8.7%)
Explore solutions that can help Restaurants and Foodservice businesses reduce food waste.
Solutions for this sector can impact food waste generated by other sectors as well, not just waste from Restaurants and Foodservice businesses. ReFED's impact estimates reflect Modeled Solutions only – Unmodeled Solutions and Best Practices can take these amounts even higher.
(Annual Figures)
Top Recommendations
- Offer flexible portion sizes and “à la carte” choices: Discourage plate waste by reducing portion sizes and/or offering customers flexibility in portion sizes, sides, and à la carte options.
- Track waste: Implement waste tracking processes to inform production, menu planning, and inventory management.
- Design low-waste menus: Implement low-waste menu design solutions, including smaller menus, product repurposing, and whole-product utilization.
- Sell end-of-day product: Employ dynamic pricing options for end-of-day sales, such as late happy hours or using markdown alert apps.
- Establish donation relationships: Establish relationships for collection of extra food for donation, either directly with organizations or through matching software solutions.
Optimize The Harvest
Key Opportunities
- Encourage produce distributors to create innovative purchasing models, such as whole-crop purchasing, to ensure full utilization of product grown.
- Establish advance purchase agreements with local growers to secure necessary products while helping farmers prevent overproduction and food loss.
- Source ingredients made using circular economy principles, such as products crafted from upcycled or surplus ingredients.
Enhance Product Distribution
Key Opportunities
- Encourage distributors to use technology innovations that streamline product movement, such as intelligent routing, temperature monitoring, and early spoilage detection.
- Partner with local suppliers, food hubs, or surplus recovery networks to streamline inventory distribution and redirect excess food to alternative markets.
Refine Product Management
Key Opportunities
- Employ dynamic pricing options for end-of-day sales, such as late happy hours or using markdown alert apps.
- Implement technologies to improve demand forecasting and minimize overproduction.
- Alter client-supplier contractual obligations that generate waste and overproduction (e.g., contracts that stipulate that all hot dishes must be available for the full-service period).
- Utilize innovative packaging and storage solutions to extend the shelf-life of perishable products and reduce the need for over-purchasing.
- Improve inventory labeling and storage practices to maximize freshness and shelf life.
- Use smart scales and predictive analytics to optimize just-in-time cooking, ensuring enough food is prepared for service while minimizing overproduction.
- Implement automated kitchen systems to minimize human error and reduce waste by enabling precision plating, as well as accurate food preparation and cooking.
Maximize Product Utilization
Key Opportunities
- Implement low-waste menu design solutions, including smaller menus, product repurposing, and whole-product utilization.
- Use left-over ingredients through in-house repurposing practices and consider partnerships that seek large-volume byproducts (e.g., citrus peels, coffee grounds, etc.) as input source for upcycled products.
- Design or implement standard training curriculums and incentive structures to encourage best practices and adherence to solutions like careful trimming, menu design, and food safety.
- Partner with upcycling companies to transform kitchen byproducts into new ingredients, creating opportunities for menu reintegration, co-branding, and storytelling around sustainability.
Reshape Consumer Environments
Key Opportunities
- Discourage plate waste by reducing portion sizes and/or offering customers flexibility in portion sizes, sides, and à la carte options.
- In buffet and cafeteria settings, introduce techniques to encourage people to take smaller portions, such as trayless dining, smaller plates, and pay-by-weight pricing.
- Incorporate signage, menu design, and staff training to educate and encourage customers to take only what they need, reducing leftover waste.
- In K-12 food programs, encourage less waste through offer versus serve, share tables, menu design, and longer lunch periods that occur after recess.
- Highlight dishes made with upcycled or ‘imperfect’ produce to normalize food recovery efforts and engage customers in sustainability.
- Provide easy, eco-friendly takeout options to encourage guests to bring home leftovers instead of letting food go to waste.
- Provide discounts for customers who finish their meals, opt for smaller portions, or bring their own reusable containers.
- Set up well-labeled composting and recycling bins in dining areas to encourage customers to properly dispose of food waste and packaging.
Strengthen Food Rescue
Key Opportunities
- Establish relationships for collection of extra food for donation, either directly with organizations or through matching software solutions.
- Coordinate across the sector to develop shared economies for idle assets, such as cold storage and transportation, to expand access at lower cost and resource impact.
- Scale existing donation programs through enhanced communication between food donors and food banks, and implementing coordination and matching software solutions.
- Implement staff training curriculums regarding donation liability protections and donation best practices, such as storing and packaging procedures.
Recycle Anything Remaining
Key Opportunities
- Collaborate with systems players to demonstrate demand for feedstock, generate consistent inputs, and incentivize investment in recycling infrastructure.
- Partner with local waste hauling companies that specialize in waste diversion services to ensure that food scraps and other waste are properly recycled or composted.
- Partner with vendors that provide onsite digesters or other food waste management units, along with services to responsibly handle any byproducts, ensuring they are diverted from landfills, sewer systems, and wastewater treatment plants.
Your Source for Data and Solutions:
ReFED's Insights Engine
The Insights Engine is an online hub for data and insights about food waste built from more than 50 public and proprietary datasets, plus estimates and information from academic studies, industry papers, case studies, and expert interviews; a detailed financial analysis of more than 40 food waste reduction solutions; a directory of organizations ready to partner on food waste reduction initiatives; and more. With more granular data, more extensive analyses, more customized views, and the most up-to-date information, the Insights Engine can provide anyone interested in food waste reduction with the information they need to take meaningful action.
ReFED offers a range of solutions for organizations to advance their own food waste initiatives. Our interactive tools, reports and strategic solutions can help your team get started.