114 restaurants (Champions 12.3)

The problem

Most kitchens know they throw food away. Few know how much, and fewer know what it costs them. Champions 12.3, a coalition working on global food waste, asked whether cutting waste actually pays for a restaurant.

What they did

Researchers from WRAP and the World Resources Institute (WRI) analysed cost and savings data from 114 restaurants in 12 countries. The restaurants ranged from about $400,000 to $17.3 million in annual food sales. The sites did three things:

• Measured and tracked the food they threw away.
• Trained staff on new handling and storage practices.
• Redesigned menus, including new dishes made from trimmings and leftovers.

What changed

On average, restaurants saved $7 in operating costs for every $1 they spent. Food waste fell 26% within a year. More than three quarters of the sites earned back their spend within that first year, and every site spent less than $20,000 in total. The savings came from buying less food, selling new dishes made from former waste, and paying less for waste removal.

What you can learn

• Weigh the bin before you cut a supplier. One week of logging prep waste, spoilage and plate waste usually shows where your food cost is going.
• Waste is a training problem. Storage, FIFO and portioning are habits, and habits change through training.
• Your trimmings can be a menu item. A staff meal, a soup or a daily special made from prep offcuts turns a cost into a sale.

A waste and food cost check is part of every restaurant audit we run, and fixing it is the job of menu engineering and food costing.