FOOD & DRINK
WASTE: FROM FARM TO TABLE
By paying close attention to every decision through the lifecycle of a food product, organisations can dramatically reduce the volume of waste they create, ultimately giving those who are responsible for the catering service in their organisations a more holistic appreciation for their operation, says Vacherin’s Dan Kelly.
Nearly one-third of all food produced globally each year is lost or wasted. This can come about for a multitude of reasons: mishandling and spoilage, lack of demand from customers in restaurants and supermarkets, uneaten food, and even because they are not aesthetically perfect so simply don’t get bought by customers. If we were to recover this, by demanding less and appreciating it more, we could feed double the number of people on the planet who currently go hungry. In fact, food waste is a root cause of hunger globally. As such, the reduction of food waste has to be a core part of any good corporate social responsibility strategy.
Everyone suffers including the organisations producing the waste. Champions 12.3 is a coalition of executives from a range of backgrounds including governments, businesses, international organisations, research institutions, farmer groups, and civil society. The organisation is dedicated to accelerating progress toward achieving SDG Target 12.3: halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains including post-harvest losses by 2030. Champions 12.3 found that the average return on investment to reduce food waste was 6:1. The research suggests not only that waste can be
24 | TOMORROW’S FM
reduced significantly, but that there is no good reason for businesses not to take action.
Just one year of food waste costs the catering sector £44m and could fill The Shard 11 times over. Much of the problem stems from the complex lifeycle of food, with each new step creating the likelihood of more waste. But by paying close attention to the journey that food takes from farm to table, organisations can dramatically reduce the volume of waste they create. In turn, this understanding of each step and the way everything comes together gives catering staff a more holistic appreciation of the sector. These figures not only reveal the mammoth scale of the current challenge to reduce waste but also the foodservice sector’s own opportunity and responsibility to set an example for the rest of UK economy to follow.
The process begins with client organisations and their catering providers becoming more knowledgeable about their purchasing decisions and how these lead to food waste accumulation. Everything - from procurement to storage and handling to preparation and customer preferences - plays a part. The three main causes of food waste are spoilage, loss during preparation, and simply not being eaten. All of these need to be addressed and
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