WASTE & SUSTAINABILITY
http://www.eunomia.co.uk/person/ mark-hilton/
http://www.eunomia.co.uk/ https://www.refed.com/ downloads/Foodservice_Guide_ Web.pdf
http://www.eunomia.
co.uk/services/sustainable- business/
Food for Thought Mark Hilton, Head of Sustainable Business at environmental consultancy
Eunomia, discusses the care sector’s food waste problem and the potential solutions.
Why is it that patients in healthcare generate so much food waste? The sector serves over one billion meals every year and around 18% is wasted overall – an estimated 121,000 tonnes, according to the Waste and Recycling Action Programme (WRAP). Our own work suggests that, on average, each hospital patient generates over 0.5kg of food waste per day: more than the weight of an average ready meal. The estimated cost of food waste in the healthcare sector is a staggering £230 million per year - Eunomia’s work to develop the Foodservice Waste Action Guide for ReFED found similar wastage levels in the private US healthcare sector.
The main issue is that most hospitals run a catering service which produces and freezes meals for later use. The system is far from perfect: in the worst cases, overworked ward staff simply estimate the food required. Where patient orders are taken, ward transfers, early discharges, new admissions and patient conditions can quickly render the orders inaccurate. Ward staff are then too busy to correct food orders, which means that too many or the wrong type of meals are provided, resulting in whole meals being unserved and going to waste.
Quality poses another problem. Food is generally ‘regenerated’ from frozen by being warmed up in a heated trolley which is moved hundreds of meters around the various wards. This process is oſten managed by a handful of catering staff with food being served some time later when it is overcooked and unappetising – resulting in all but the hungriest of patients leaving a good proportion of it on their plate. The hospital’s duty of care to provide sufficient nutrition rarely allows for an option for smaller portions, so patients with smaller appetites or difficulty eating do not finish the meals provided.
The solutions to these issues require a mix of resources, - 36 -
training and technology. Ideally, the food would be cooked and served to order as required, but generally this isn’t practical in large NHS hospitals. A good half-way house is to have dedicated catering staff on wards who are a) fully briefed on patient movements and condition, b) take food orders as late as possible, c) are able to take portion requirements into account and d) regenerate the food in a ward kitchen area just before the service. Some sites now use tablets for patient food orders so that any last-minute changes are possible. Simpler solutions can involve look-up tables to work out just how many full-portion equivalents are required for the mix of patients in a large ward. These changes do generally require extra staff, but the benefits of better food and nutrition result in earlier discharge and less bed blocking as well as reduced food costs.
It’s worth saying that many of these issues also apply in care homes, although the personal, longer-term relationships between residents and staff can help. In semi-independent accommodation, especially in those tailored to dementia patients, loss of memory means that dementia sufferers are oſten unable to order food effectively, keep track of use-by dates and may even forget to eat altogether. This all results in very high levels of food waste, which can be combatted by carers checking use-by dates of the food in residents’ fridges, stickering items with a ‘use me first’ sign, and preparing a frozen meal for patients.
Food waste is a problem that, when properly addressed, will allow you to focus on providing the best quality of care for your residents. If any of these issues resonate with your situation then please get in touch.
www.eunomia.co.uk www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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