My family and I just returned from a week of vacation in New Mexico. I love the West and it was a great opportunity to visit natural destinations as well as businesses. We ate out the entire time and one thing I encountered repeatedly was over portioning of food. At an eatery in Santa Fe, I ordered a chicken dish that easily could have fed several people. Perhaps you have encountered this trend in your travels?
“When eating at many restaurants, it’s hard to miss that portion sizes have gotten larger in the last few years,” the CDC says.
When vacationing, it is a challenge to know what to do with excess food. It is not always easy to make a beeline to your hotel room refrigerator when you are many miles away and enroute to another attraction. Besides, who wants to eat leftovers (possibly spoiled leftovers) in their hotel room while on vacation? Ultimately, the food goes to waste.
Incredible Amount of Wasted Food
According to a 2021 National Restaurant Association/World Wildlife Fund report entitled, “Managing Food Waste in Restaurants,” each year, American consumers, businesses, and farms spend $218 billion a year (or 1.3 percent of GDP) growing, processing, transporting, and disposing food that is never eaten. “U.S. restaurants only generate about 18 percent of this wasted food, but that is still billions of pounds of food that could feed hungry people or be reused to make energy or compost. It could save an estimated $25 billion annually, as well, according to ReFED,” the report says.
“A portion of this $25 billion is pre-consumer food waste,” the report adds. “It’s generated in the kitchen when the staff over-orders supplies, over-produces the amounts needed, trims food poorly or lets it spoil in storage. An operation can end up throwing out 4 percent to 10 percent of the food it purchases,” the report adds.
Of course there are many environmental reasons for proper portioning. According to ReFED, uneaten food is responsible for 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. alone. “It consumes cropland and fresh water—and it’s the number one material entering landfills,” ReFED says.
Start with an Audit
Where do you begin reducing food waste? Start with an audit, the NRA/WWF report says. “No restaurant can identify exactly what it is wasting unless employees separate, identify, and weigh the restaurant’s waste,” it says. “Again, if you do not measure it, you cannot manage it.”
There are companies that can help you to reduce your food waste. One that comes to mind is Leanpath, which has a new artificial intelligence-powered food waste tracker.
Almost four years ago, AHLA, WWF and The Rockefeller Foundation produced a toolkit to help hotel properties and brands meet measurable, time-bound goals to reduce food waste. The toolkit is still relevant today. Be sure to check it out.
Whether you are passionate about the environment or not, proper portioning can make your business more profitable and your guests more satisfied as well.
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