Good practice:

Your Business Is Food: Don’t Throw It Away!

In the catering sector food waste can occur at different stages: purchasing, storage, preparation, overproduction, serving dishes, through to left overs on customers’ plates. What’s thrown away is not just food, but also staff time and disposal costs. Reviewing the amount of food that is thrown away can help to find out where savings can be made, straight to the bottom line. The campaign tools give some clear ideas on how to throw away less food and start saving money. A starter guide gives a summary of why and how to take action on food thrown away. There is an animation to show how to use the tools.
The length of the review depends on how long it’s needed to get a clear picture of where food is being thrown away -through 3-day, 7-day or more tracking sheets. A calculator tool is used to see at what stage food is being thrown away on site. The Calculator includes handy graphs to show the savings that can be made to help focus on the actions for your business. Some corrective actions have been very efficient to cut food waste:
- improved portion control;
- optimising the use of ingredients;
- improved management of food prepared after the main evening peak service;
- asking customers if they want side dishes.

Leadership, engagement, training, monitoring

• Developed by WRAP under the Courtauld Commitment 2025
• Used by the sector incl. the British Hospitality Association
(now UK Hospitality), Chartered Institute of Environmental
Health, Sustainable Restaurant Association, Considerate Hoteliers
• Reduction of perishable food purchasing costs up to 25%
• Food waste reduced up to 72%
• Gross profit up by 3-5% following 33% reduction in food waste

«Your business is food, don’t throw it away» is a free campaign designed to help businesses to review and cost the food they are throwing away in order to take action and make savings. Cutting costs and saving money by throwing away less food is a challenge for every catering company.
This campaign has a hudge learning and transfer potential as the ECOWASTE4FOOD cross-visits demonstrated. Conducting food waste inventories, engaging and training staff on new food handling and redesigning menus has been identified as a key issue in various countries. High level’ expertise from WRAP can beneficiate to all outside the UK.