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March 16, 2010
Society for Food-service Management Webinar, Redefining Foodservice Waste Management.
March 19, 2010
Foodservice Consultants Society International 2010 National Conference, "Emerging Trends in Food Waste Management"
Minneapolis, MN
April 14, 2010
BioCycle West Coast Conference, "Redefining Foodservice Waste Management"
San Diego, CA
When chefs talk about “utilization”, they’re usually referring to finding a “profitable or practical use” for the food they purchase.
The most obvious use is within the menu item for which the food was purchased. But often there is more food purchased than ultimately is required for its intended purpose (due to forecasting issues, excess purchasing, or overproduction). In these cases, chefs must use judgment and creativity to get value from that food before it expires: this is a “utilization.”
For example, a chef might say “I found a utilization for these cooked carrots” meaning they were put toward a secondary use in soup, stew or pot pie filling. Utilization (when practiced with full regard to food safety considerations) is not only a practical use, but profitable because you found a valuable use for what would otherwise become food waste.
Executive Chef, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
Baltimore, MD
Chef Felipe Delgado serves as the Executive Chef at Johns Hopkins
Bayview Medical Center, a 560-bed medical center with catering, retail,
and patient foodservice operations. Originally from Ecuador, he’s been
with Johns Hopkins Bayview for two years.
Chef Felipe and his team began tracking food waste in April 2009 using
an automated touch-screen tracking system from LeanPath. The system
generated reports that showed which pre-consumer food items were wasted
most and why. After reviewing this information with his Stop Waste
Action Team (SWAT), Chef Felipe decided to focus first on reducing the
amount of soup waste in his operation because many gallons were going
into the garbage from overproduction every day. He and the team set a
specific goal and, after two months, they were able to reduce soup waste
by 30%.
Chef Felipe’s overall goal was to reduce waste and food costs; he’s
posted steady progress and has reduced waste overall by double digits.
He reports that having data about waste created “immediate impact” and
that the tracking process is “very good” and that wasting less food
reduces not just food cost, it also avoids staff spending time preparing
items which are not needed.
His advice for chefs new to food waste tracking is to be consistent with
the tracking effort and review your reports so you have information to
address “any financial issue and correct it.”
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Welcome new LeanPath customers!
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA
Iowa Health Methodist West Hospital
Des Moines, IA
Lawrence & Memorial Hospital
New London, CT
Morgan Stanley
New York, NY
Westchester, NY
Veterans Administration Medical Center
Martinsburg, WV
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
Timing is Everything: Watch the
Calendar
We’ve found that chefs who are successful at maximizing sales and
reducing waste are, in most cases, very good at predicting customer
demand. The more accurately we can forecast demand, the less
likely we are to have leftover items that become waste. The only
thing you can count about customer demand is that it’s likely to
change over time. One of the key drivers of customer preference
is the season of the year. Chefs who pay attention closely to
seasonal preferences have the best shot at anticipating changes in
item popularity, matching demand, and avoiding waste.
that winter weight, customers will start to move away from the
heavier foods and begin to target healthier, salads and entrees.
attention to the weather, cold spell coming back? Customers will
look back for the warmer filling foods. Stretch of nice weather?
Customers will think healthier and portability is key as people
look to break free and get outside.
keep people cool. Items that customers can grab on their way
outside, iced drinks and chilled items take preference over heavier
winter menus.
done; people will be looking for more comfort foods and back to the
grill in preparation of the holiday season ahead!
be turning toward those filling items such as festive comfort
foods, heavy soups, casseroles, pastas, ham, and stuffing.
Day of the Week Waste
Reports – Match Waste and Menus
Many operators have menus that stay mostly the same day-to-day while
others run cycle menus and specials that create regular change.
Regardless of which type of menu you have, it’s very useful to review
waste by day of the week. This step can reveal waste issues that vary
day-to-day due to variances in staffing, customers, schedules, and modes
of operation. Once you see a day with a waste spike, you can drill into
it and figure out why its occurring.
For example, an operator reviewed a Waste by Day of Week report and
discovered that Wednesday was the day with the most waste – by a wide
margin. They then drilled into the detailed information for Wednesday
and found that their waste was coming from stations other than Expo
Cooking. They realized the Expo Cooking program (which occurred only on
Wednesday and drew 600+ orders) was drawing customers away from the
standing menu items at other stations and leading to much more waste at
those stations. The chef adjusted production forecasts for the other
stations on Wednesday and
brought waste down dramatically.
2006: Facility "A" threw away the equivalent of 12 elephants in food
waste.
2009: Facility "A" three away the equivalent of 4.5 elephants in food
waste.
That's a 7.5 elephant reduction!!!
Note: One elephant weighs 10,000 lbs. No elephants were harmed in
the reduction of this food waste.
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Read a new article from the Foodservice Consultant's Society International (FCSI) Americas Quarterly: Food Waste Tracking What You Need to Know. (4MB PDF)
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Read an Executive Summary of LeanPath Food Waste Tracking Systems.
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Visit the new LeanPath Cafe Press Store to see merchandise for employee recognition related to food waste tracking.
Want regular updates on waste trends?
Read the Food Waste Focus Blog!
Food Waste Focus
is an educational blog
with food waste insights from the
LeanPath team. Posts each week
update readers on
food waste news, commentary, and
waste reduction tips.
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