According to research done by the Natural Resources Defense Council, restaurants in the U.K. generate an estimated 10 billion pounds of food waste every year—and that’s only counting what gets thrown out by restaurants that are covered by the study. If all restaurants in the country were included.
That number would be much higher since not all restaurant owners respond to surveys about waste generation practices. Restaurants have to abide by strict government regulations when it comes to how much food they can prepare and order—so it makes sense that they’d end up throwing away more food than the average individual household, right? Not necessarily.
The Big Picture
Wasted food is an enormous problem. According to NRDC’s Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill, an estimated 31 percent, or 133 billion pounds, of food produced in 2010 went uneaten. The report further estimates that restaurants and other commercial operations are responsible for more than half of that waste that’s about 60 billion pounds. check out our list of the 20 best food restaurants in Wolverhampton.
Of course, there’s a variety of reasons behind all that waste in many cases it has less to do with how much food is actually produced than how it gets distributed. When businesses and individual consumers take action against wasted food they not only help save money but also reduce their environmental impact; food waste is largely responsible for 21 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Where Does the Waste Come From?
U.K. restaurants waste 25 percent of their food from farm to fork. This equates to 4 billion pounds and £2 billion annually money that is literally thrown in the trash! How does it happen, and what can be done about it? Find out right here.
Are Smaller Portions the Answer?
Today, restaurants typically serve about 20% more food than they did in 1970. Yet, even though we have a much larger portion size today (about 45%) compared to what we had in 1940 (35%), our average calorie intake has increased by only 9%. In other words, our plates are way too big and we’re consuming about 900 extra calories every day due to having more food on our plates than we need.
To make matters worse, as Americans spend a bigger chunk of their income on dining out than ever before—£243 billion in 2014—the foodservice industry is throwing away billions of dollars worth of perfectly good food every year. And I mean billions: nearly 50% of all U.S. restaurant meals end up in landfills each year!
What Can Customers Do to Cut Back on Food Waste at Home?
Many restaurants and supermarkets donate food they don’t sell. But if you want to cut back on food waste, it’s important to realize that it happens at home, too. A lot of people overbuy groceries because they don’t use up all their food before it goes bad. The solution is simple: you’ll be able to find the perfect food restaurant in Wolverhampton to suit your needs on this list of the 20 best food restaurants in Wolverhampton.
stock your fridge with only as much as you can eat in a few days, or plan on eating leftovers for lunch or dinner so there won’t be any wasted food in your refrigerator. And if you do have something that’s about to spoil, freeze it quickly so bacteria don’t have time to grow and cause food poisoning—freezing overnight works well!
Good for Business, Bad for the Planet
The Importance of Food Waste Reduction : Imagine if a restaurant was able to save 10% on its food costs by cutting out waste. For any business owner, that’s a solid savings. If your restaurant serves 4,000 meals a day and saves £10,000 in food costs (at 25%), you’re looking at an extra £20 profit per day.
just by trimming waste from plates as they leave your kitchen! But there’s another incentive for reducing food waste: By diverting edible food that would have been wasted into people’s bellies instead of a landfill, you make great strides toward mitigating climate change. In fact, reducing global food waste by 50% is often cited as one of our best ways to do it.
Food Waste
The Costs and Consequences of Throwing Away Good Food : Reducing food waste, however, isn’t just good for society—it can be good for your bottom line. In 2014, a team of researchers estimated that, on average, each person wastes almost 200 pounds of food per year. That comes out to a whopping £1,500 in wasted food annually per person.
Considering that restaurant meals cost on average between £9 and £16 per person (not including alcohol), it’s easy to see how all that leftover food adds up quickly. So where is all that wasted food coming from? According to an analysis by NYU’s Food Recovery Network , here are some of America’s biggest culprits: 1.
Plate Patterns and Storage
A look at plate patterns and storage helps minimize food waste by preventing excess portions. For example, smaller plates lead to less wasted food because there’s less room for error: You’re more likely to stop eating when you’re full on a smaller plate than on a larger one. Smaller plates also free up space in your stomach for healthier choices like vegetables and lean proteins. Similarly, restaurants can work with storage to keep leftover items from being wasted.
How do restaurants get food waste?
When a restaurant gets food from a supplier, sometimes it doesn’t get what it ordered. Maybe there was an oversupply, or maybe something went wrong during shipping—maybe a box fell on it. There are lots of reasons why restaurants don’t always get exactly what they need. For more information visit our website best bizz.
And those boxes and bags of extra food eventually make their way to the restaurant-waste stream. If a restaurant throws away food before being served to customers (anything in its garbage), that’s considered pre-consumer waste and is typically excluded from EPA estimates; at least in theory.
Conclusion
When it comes to food waste, there are some definite culprits at restaurants. The good news is that now there are easy ways to help combat food waste with apps like Food Cowboy and organizations like Feeding Forward. Take a moment today to think about what you can do to prevent food waste in your own life; it could very well make all of your other efforts more sustainable and beneficial. Maybe you’ll even save some money while doing so!
