Did you know?
A 20% reduction of food waste in an average restaurant could result in £2000 of savings through using food that would normally be discarded, and between £150 -£1700 saving on waste collection costs. Showing that there are large financial savings to be had from tackling food waste head on.
Research concludes that wastage can be accounted for in 3 separate areas in a UK restaurant they are:
• 21% through spoilage
• 45% through food preparation
• 34% is plate waste
The campaign not only aims to remove the embarrassment for the diner, in asking for the ‘Take Me Home’ box, but also explore other ways for restaurant to minimise food waste. We recognise that the ‘Take Me Home’ box is only one part of minimising food reduction and there is lots that restaurants can do to help in that reduction before food even reaches a plate! We are encouraging restaurants to explore the many other ways to reduce their food waste, these include reducing spoilage by auditing stock, using seasonable produce, offering a variety of portion sizes and looking at ways of reducing preparation waste.
In 2010 the SRA conducted a smaller programme with a number of London based restaurants and managed to reduce food waste by 20% just by making some simple changes.
These included
- Using prep waste in the creation of other dishes (turning orange peel into marmalade, using broccoli stalks for soup, and so on).
– Offering customer’s different portion sizes.
– Relearning old skills that get the most from cuts of meat, vegetables and other produce, and sharing these with the younger generation of chefs – going beyond the basics.
The campaign aims to support participating restaurant in this process, and help make people feel comfortable asking for a ‘Take Me Home’ box.