Sustainability
Food waste: how to cut costsanddrivesustainability
The issue of food waste is one that every business should be tackling, especially those in the care sector where catering occurs on a sizeable scale. In this article, Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, discusses why reduction, redistribution and recycling should be at the heart of any waste management strategy
There can be few statistics as startling as those associated with food waste. Alongside the financial expense of purchasing, wasting and disposing of perfectly edible food, the environmental implications are equally as alarming. Indeed, when food waste decomposes in landfill, it releases greenhouse gas emissions with a global warming potential 21 times greater than carbon dioxide. In terms of a worldwide carbon
footprint, food waste emits 3.3 billion tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent every year - roughly seven per cent of our entire global emissions. Indeed, if food waste were a country, it would be the third biggest polluter in the world after China and the United States. Despite a growing green agenda, the
UK is still a major culprit in the food waste catastrophe. Every year, we bin 10m tonnes of food, which originates from a variety of sources. From by-products arising during the food manufacturing process, to spoiled
produce at supermarkets, plate scrapings from restaurants and binned leftovers in the home, our food waste guilt spans the entire food supply chain.
Care sector food waste Although clearly on a smaller scale, the UK’s care sector is a key contributor to our national food waste problems. With over 17,000 care homes in the UK providing care to nearly half a million people, the opportunity for the sector to make a positive impact is clear. Indeed, recent statistics show that
up to 40 per cent of all food served in the average care home is typically wasted. While some of this is unavoidable meal preparation waste such as bones, cores, gristle and shells, the vast majority is perfectly edible plate scrapings and spoiled produce.
Care homes can make a massive difference both to their bottom line and the environment by dealing with the issue of food waste
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Feeding the elderly can be a challenge. Managers of care homes suggest the key challenges are sub-standard inventory processes, varying portion sizes and the need to offer a wide variety of meals to satisfy a wide range of food preferences. This makes planning and budgeting a hugely difficult task, with food costs placing high up the balance sheet. Alongside the financial implications of
buying such huge volumes of food in the first place, it is also important to question what happens to the resulting waste. Unfortunately, the unpleasant truth is that most of it is simply thrown away. Yet this simply is not a viable or ethical
long-term solution- our landfill sites are bursting at the seams. Alongside capacity issues, research shows that the greenhouse gases released by food left to rot in landfill are even more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. What is more, with every tonne of
waste bearing a landfill tax figure in excess of £96 per tonne, the costs of disposing of excess food are eye-wateringly expensive, money that could be better spent on resources, equipment or staffing.
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • November 2021
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