Quite simply, food waste costs money. Whether it’s through waste ingredients and labour created during the preparation process, out-of-date foods, consumer leftovers or rising disposal costs, all these reasons have economic implications that can determine the success or failure of a business.
The best place to start educating the industry on these issues is by taking it back to basics and getting students entering the industry when they’re already in the mindset of learning.
North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, for example, is offering up to Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Professional Cookery in which the students are prepared for their careers by chef lecturer Peter Anderson and his colleagues.
The department serves two restaurants that are open to the general public. ‘Refresh’ serves a café/bar menu where any overproduction created during practical sessions is sold. ‘Glebegate Restaurant’ is open four days a week for both lunch and dinner with all the dishes created and served by the students.
Last year the college won gold at the Welsh International Culinary Championships in the Inter-College Team Challenge, sponsored by Unilever Food Solutions United Against Waste.
Anderson says: “When the students come to the college at 16 some of them have never cooked, never bought food, or ever paid for food and therefore have no idea how much ingredients cost. So when they come in it’s our job to make them realise that if they’re throwing food in the bin they’re throwing money in the bin too.”
He said the college sourced fresh local vegetables, where possible, which helped students keep food waste to a minimum. Students were taught the basic skills first, including filleting and knife skills to ensure waste was minimised from the start.
“Costs at the college, and in education in general, are very tight and it’s paramount to get this right straight away. However, where there are leftovers from practical classes these are used to make other dishes e.g. scraps of fish are used to create fish cakes and the bones used for stocks.
“We regularly monitor the waste the students create throughout their practical sessions to address potential savings and make them aware of measures they could take to reduce this.
“Whether a practice kitchen or production class, if we’re not using the dishes created, the students get the opportunity to buy them at cost price. If the students don’t want them, we blast chill them and offer them to customers visiting the restaurant. We never have anything left at the end of a service, which is testament to the students.
“The students take part in a number of competitions and the issue of waste has really taken off, as we saw at the Welsh International Culinary Championships. It encourages the students to think a lot more and not focus solely on what they’re producing on the plate. At the end of the day, they’re doing a job and they need to think about how they can make the best profit from what they’re creating.”
Student Mike Nyota, who’s studying for a Level 3 in professional cookery, said: “The skills we’re taught early on are paramount to ensuring we’re making use of every ingredient we’re given to prepare. We’re constantly faced with ways to save food in the kitchen with the lecturers checking how we’re prepping ingredients and advising on how we could make use of trimmings that we might not have seen a use for.
“In 10 years I think there will be less food waste created in the industry with more and more students coming out of college embracing this in the work place. There is constant awareness both in and out of home on the issue of waste and I believe it will become natural practice.”
Sophie Lynch, a fellow Level 3 professional cookery student added: “Chef produces a menu that ensures we’re minimising waste when we’re cooking at all times. We’ve had to become more business aware throughout the course and are taught that every ingredient can achieve a profit.
“It’s great that competitions are now prioritising waste in the judging process. We have a great understanding of how we can ensure we’re maximising the ingredients throughout our dishes and saving waste comes naturally to us.
“If a menu or dish wins a competition and it’s not judged on the waste produced, it’s not going to be a profitable dish if it was put on a menu. We think of competitions as if they were a business and compete as if it was our own business.
“It will take time, but if menus go back to being slightly more rustic it will create less waste as every element of the ingredients are used within the dish. We need to remind people that everything can be used as there’s plenty of profit to be made.”
Meanwhile, Serena Bacuzzi, the sustainability coordinator at the college, was employed three years ago to increase awareness of sustainability and environmental issues.
She said: “Three years ago there was a lot of opportunity to introduce savings at the college and the first project we undertook was to implement a better recycling scheme.
“Before long we began to notice that there was a need to manage the waste in a different way within the catering and hospitality department. Due to the materials used on a day-to-day basis, we were seeing a lot of waste from packaging and deliveries into the unit.”
Before the college introduced these processes it was only recycling 8% of the 900 tonnes of waste produced each year. However, by avoiding landfill and sending waste for alternative energy production, after the first year, it noticed a financial saving of approximately £1,000 per month. And, after three years, it is now recycling over 70% of its waste.
Anderson concluded: “It’s good that suppliers are taking the initiative to make us more aware of big issues such as this and are working together with colleges and the industry to tackle the issue of waste production.
“It’s not only about recycling; it’s about tackling the issue of waste and how this can be reduced before the problem arises. Our students will be the bosses of the future. We need to educate them now to ensure we’re not facing a bigger or different crisis in the future.”
To watch a video showing how North Warwickshire and Hinckley College is bringing the food waste message home to students click on the screen below.