Food is where the money is…
Food waste and its prevention in the
commerical sector
Colum Gibson, Clean Technology Centre
What do we know about
organic waste in Ireland?
 In Ireland there is almost half a million tonnes of organic
waste generated each year by households and commercial
businesses
 The majority of this is food based waste through it also
Organic Waste Generated
in Ireland
includes garden and landscape wastes
 The organic waste is split almost 50: 50 between
commercial and household
 In addition there is significant quantities of process based
organic wastes from industrial food processors and
producers, much of which goes for rendering
Commerce
49%
Household
51%
The SFW Programme – 2 key
parts
• Promotion of food waste prevention message
– Provide information
• Website, materials, newsletter, social media, commercial
information and support, commercial food waste tool
(new)
– National Promotion
• National Events
• Donal Skehan, Sheila Kiely and cookery demos
• Promoting composting
– Provide Information
– Master Composters & Demo Sites
Food waste is Expensive
• When thinking about the cost of food
waste, most businesses just think about
the disposal costs – but there are other
costs to consider
• It has been estimated that each tonne of
food waste can cost between €3,000 €4,000 – sometimes less, often times
more. That is €4 per kilo of food waste!
This cost includes:
– Costs to buy
– Costs to cook & manage on site
The solution to this waste of money for
– Cost of disposal
your business is Food Waste Prevention.
Food Waste Prevention
To Prevent Food Waste you must first identify
where and why food waste is being generated
Then come up with solutions to prevent this
waste as close to the wasting point as
possible.
Before you start, consider:
• The main food waste producing business types in your
area
• Typical quantities of food waste generated by different
business
• The main types of food waste generated by different
business
What are the main food waste
producing sectors in your area
 Difficult to assess – every area is different
 Best estimate - extract data from the EPA National Waste
Characterisation studies (2008)
Wholesale, 4.6%
Transport &
Communication,
2.7%
General
Retail, 1.6%
Education, 6.1%
Hotel, 27.2%
Hospitals, 8.1%
Offices, 11.1%
Food Retail, 23.2%
Indicates
canteens
Restaurant, 15.5%
How much food waste does your
business is produce?
• There are a series of factors (or indicators) in 2008
Waste Char report for each sector
• These indicate the amount of waste generated per
sectoral factor
• Factors used are a best estimate based on information
available
– May not be the best actual factor
– May not have enough data to generate a truly representative
value
– Different sites within a sector may have different set-ups e.g.
hospitals, restaurants, hotels, etc.
– Your business may be better than the norm
Estimated Food Waste Factors
Sector
G: Wholesale
G: Food Retail
G: General Retail
(Drapery)
G: filling stations
H: Hotels
H: Restaurants
I: Transport
I: Communication
J, K & L: Offices (no
canteen)
M: Education (1st)
M: Education (2nd)
M: Education (3rd)
N: Hospitals (acute)
N: Hospitals (long stay)
O: Other
CANTEEN
Employee Numbers
Employee Numbers
Total
Waste/Factor
tonnes
1.957
1.88
Employee Numbers
0.832
3.1
0.025792
Employee Numbers
Bed nights
Employee Numbers
Travel numbers
Employee Numbers
2.5
0.00648
1.741
0.000148
0.436
22
43
46
23
21
0.55
0.0027864
0.80086
0.00003404
0.09156
Employee Numbers
0.126
6
0.00756
Student numbers
Student numbers
Student numbers
Hospital Beds
Hospital Beds
Employees
Emplyees
0.0098
0.026
0.042
3.09
1.85
0.75
0.092
23
38
32
22
25
35
62
0.002254
0.00988
0.01344
0.6798
0.4625
0.2625
0.05704
Factor Used
% Food Waste
Organic Waste/
Factor tonnes
25
37.7
0.48925
0.70876
Example of use of factors
• If you have a primary school with 200
students then you should be generating:
– 200 x 0.0098 = 1.96 tonnes of total waste
each year
• Of this, the amount of food waste is
– 200 x 0.002254 = 0.45 tonnes of food waste
annually
In general there are 3 types of
food waste
Unavoidable Food
Waste, 20%
Potentially
Avoidable Food
Waste, 20%
Avoidable Food
Waste, 60%
What food is being throwing
out?
60% Avoidable:
–
–
–
–
–
plate scrapings
leftovers
gone off fruit and veg
passed date items
damaged stock which cannot be used due to H&S, etc.
20% Potentially Avoidable
–
–
–
–
–
bread crusts or heels made into bread crumbs
vegetable trimmings used for stock and soups
meat and fish bones used for stock
discarded butter for cooking
old fruit for jams and smoothies, etc.
20% Unavoidable
– banana skins
– animal bones (before or after used to make stock),
– unusable prep waste (e.g. potato peels with soil on them), etc.
Where is the food waste being
in businesses
• Different businesses will generate different types of
food waste. The ‘where and why’ depends on the
type of business:
• Food Serving
• Retail/Wholesale
— Out of date…or is it??
– Prep Waste
— Damaged
– Plate Waste
— Deli & fresh sales
– Unserved Food
To identify main areas of food waste then a food
waste assessment is the required
3 types of Food Waste Assessment
General food waste assessment
•Overview of site wide information
•No specifics about where and when food waste is produced
•Every business do this as part of good management practices
Basic food waste assessment
•Origins of the main food wastes are identified
•Information from general assessment broken down according to
where the food waste comes from
Detailed food waste assessment
•Main types of food waste are examined
•Times and reasons of generation looked at
•Can be a time consuming process
1. General Survey of food waste
from supermarket
• TIP! Remember, make sure your brown bins are full when being
removed – do not partially fill lots of bins. Waste contractors
usually charge per lift so this will cost you more
• Example - On getting new brown bins for the catering
department, a small west of Ireland Hospital were shocked
when they filled the 6 bins before the end of the first week.
There was almost 0.7 tonnes of food waste being generated
weekly costing ~ €2,800.
• They have since halved their weekly bills through food waste
prevention measures
2. Basic Assessment Supermarket Survey
staff canteen
7%
Household coffee dock
9%
8%
deli
30%
front bins
12%
kitchen
16%
butcher
14%
shop floor
4%
Canteen Waste Profile
Canteen Surveys - Industrial and Commercial Sites
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
Organic
Cardboard
Paper
Plastic
Composites
Metal
Glass
Other
Wood
Textiles
Identify main sources of food
waste
• Food Waste Survey of on-site canteen:
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Plate Waste
Preparation Waste
Unused Cooked Food
Examples of detailed surveys
• Food Waste Survey of on-site canteen:
45.0%
– Breakfast 16.8%
– Lunch 40.4%
– Dinner 42.8%
40.0%
35.0%
13.8%
20.4%
30.0%
Dinner
25.0%
20.0%
Lunch
11.7%
8.6%
Breakfast
15.0%
10.0%
14.6%
18.8%
9.9%
5.0%
2.2%
0.0%
Plate Waste
Preparation Waste
Unused Cooked
Food
Examples of surveys
• Food Waste Survey of Hospital room:
Once you have the info - what do you
do about food waste?
• Different hierarchies have been proposed
Prevention is always the best option
A number of useful Guides
Hot Tomatoes cost €€€’s
• Monaghan Bar/Restaurant started looking at
food waste as part of LAPN project
• Looked at waste coming back from plates
• Noted that hot tomatoes were not being eaten
• Stopped serving them and saved almost
€2,000!
Wedding Functions in 2 Hotels
Waste Generated at Hotel A Wedding
Function
Waste Generated at Hotel B
Wedding Function
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.4
1st Survey
0.4
0.3
2nd Survey 0.2
0.3
0.1
0.2
0
0.1
0
Main Course Main Course
Meat
Vegetables
Dessert
Preparation Total waste
per guest
• Series of changes made between surveys including:
–
–
–
–
Training and awareness
Change serving process – central plates
Less trimming of veg and meats
Better portion control
Intel (USA) Canteen
• 12,000 meals a week in 2 cafes, generating 1.4
tonnes of pre-consumer food waste per week
–
–
–
–
Overproduction
Waste trim
Spoilage
Expiration
• Implemented food waste tracking and staff training
• Waste down by 47% with savings of 13.2%
The on-site management option
Sources of information
•
•
•
•
•
www.ghawards.ie
www.localprevention.ie
www.greenhealthcareprogramme.ie
www.foodwaste.ie
http://www.unileverfoodsolutions.ie/ourservices/your-kitchen/wiseuponfoodwaste
Remember, food waste =
money!