Food waste treatment or managing food waste is important in every restaurant and other eateries due to the growing awareness of the impact of food waste on climate change. Mishandling food waste is the major contributor to Greenhouse gas emissions. Discarding food waste in landfills rot to emit Methane- a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It is not just about the emission of methane from food waste but all the greenhouse gas emissions that occurred in every stage of the food supply chain. Keeping food waste out of landfills has many environmental benefits and when food waste is treated efficiently we can prevent almost 8% of total Greenhouse gas emissions globally. So it is high time now for every restaurant and eateries to install a food waste treatment system.
Did you know managing food waste is not just going to help the environment but is good for your business too? According to a study, it has been approximately estimated that food waste from every fast- food restaurant is about 9.55% whereas in full-service restaurants 11.3% of food is wasted. When we throw food in the trash, we throw our money too. Yes, along with the food the cost incurred in buying food, all the energy, water, fuel used in bringing the farm to the table is all wasted. All this information and data are more than enough for restaurants to take initiative on installing a food waste treatment system that is eco-friendly and provides you enough Biogas for cooking.
Read on to know how restaurants can go green by reducing and managing food waste. Come let’s reduce, reuse, and recycle all your food waste.
Conduct a food waste audit in your restaurants
Initially, it is important to conduct a food waste audit to identify the key areas of improvement. A waste audit will give you and your staff a true knowledge of how much food your restaurant is tossing out. Talk to your employees and identify to know where the majority of food waste happens. This is important to make a plan on reducing and managing your food waste responsibly and sustainably.
Create a responsible team of employees who can track and analyze the waste in your restaurant. For instance, your waiting staff, Chefs, employees in charge of ordering goods know well where your restaurant can cut down.
Ask your team to analyze the trash bags for a week and sort out the trash. Produce such as fruits and vegetables including citrus, Meat, and egg can be recycled to produce Biogas using CHUGG-an an innovative food waste treatment system in India. Whereas paper wastes, plastics, aluminum, broken places, etc. can also be recycled sustainably. If you are wondering how CHUGG could help with food waste management for your restaurant contact one of our waste audit experts at AVRIS environment technologies LLP. We are much pleased to make you understand how your food waste management process can be improved.
Purchase only what is required
Only your Chef knows how much food goes to trash before it even reaches the table. No restaurant likes to go out of ingredients on a busy day, however, tossing a large amount of food is a big issue for you and the environment as well. Only ordering what you need will reduce the amount of waste thrown away and saves you a lot of money. Conduct an audit and maintain a journal to know what is needed, and how much is needed.
Adopt FIFO storage method
FIFO – First in, first out! This is a simple yet effective way to prevent food from spoiling. In this method, you need to store according to the immediate use-by-date. For instance, you already have some bread left in the storage which was ordered on Monday, still, you have made an order on Wednesday. Based on the FIFO storage method you will be storing the recently ordered bread at the back of the shelf, this is a great way to use the older stock before it gets spoiled.
This method is great for all types of food. It is especially good for fruits, vegetables meat, and dairy products.
Label all your Ingredients
By using the FIFO method you can keep track of use-by dates, yet it is important to label all your food and ingredients. This way you can ensure are following the method efficiently. Label your ingredients and food with the most important information and specify its use-by date. This will help your chef or any other employee to identify the gone-off-food quickly. Always keep an eye on foods and ingredients that are approaching their use-by date. Ask someone from your waste audit team to label them immediately to bring attention to your cooking staff.
Get creative with seasonal ingredients and leftovers
This is a challenge that many chefs enjoy doing. This will save you money and reduce food wastage. Plan your menu with seasonal produces so that you don’t have to purchase a lot of flavorings and ingredients. Instead, order a few bulk seasonal produce that will be used up before it gets spoiled. Also, get creative with your left-overs. Restaurants waste tons of food every day while many people starve to death. There are brilliant ways to use leftovers taking into consideration the hygiene of your cooked food. Otherwise, the rotten food can be recycled using a food waste treatment system you can also create compost, or donate the leftovers to people who starve.
Refresh your Menu and avoid overfilling diner’s plates
Look for meals that are not very popular it is time to remove them from your menu. This way you can reduce food waste and the cost incurred in cooking it. Reduce the portion sizes for your diners this way you can reduce the restaurant food waste drastically. Reduce the salad and extras used for presentation which will be tossed in a bin. This is a simpler trick to reduce food waste that comes customer side.
Recycle your food waste sustainably and responsibly
In a restaurant or other eateries, you cannot completely eradicate food waste. Even after taking all these measures your food and ingredients are bound to spoilage or left unused. Every eateries and restaurant need to recycle food waste responsibly and sustainably. However, it is possible to ensure that food waste does not go to the bin. Installing an innovative food waste treatment system is an environmentally friendly way, to ensure all the leftover generated by your eatery is handled efficiently.
Installing a food waste treatment system in your restaurant means that your leftovers or food wastage are recycled responsibly to produce Biogas. It also makes it much easier for your restaurant to follow waste disposal regulations.
Implement these tips in your restaurants and other eateries to save you from the hassle of waste disposal and reduce the emission of Greenhouse gas into the air.
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