Strategies to combat food waste
Food waste has been a chronic problem for restaurants and grocery stores in America, where as much as half the country’s food goes to waste.
Millions of tons are lost as crops are hauled hundreds of miles, stored for weeks in refrigerators and prepared on hectic restaurant assembly lines. But the historically high price of commodities is making it an even bigger drag on the bottom line.
Restaurants, colleges, hospitals and other institutions are compensating for the rising costs of waste in novel ways. Some are tracking their trash with software systems, making food in smaller batches or trying to compost and cut down on trash-hauling costs.
"We have all come to work with this big elephant in the middle of the kitchen, and the elephant is this ‘It’s okay to waste’ belief system," said Andrew Shackman, president of LeanPath, a company that helps restaurants cut back food waste.
"The interest level in cutting food waste has just skyrocketed in the last six to nine months," he said.
Roughly 30% of food in the U.S. goes to waste, costing some $48 billion annually, according to a Stockholm Water Institute study released this summer. A 2004 University of Arizona study put the total higher, estimating that 40 percent to 50% of U.S. food is wasted.
Wholesale food costs have risen more than 8% this year alone, the biggest jump in decades, according the National Restaurant Association. That comes after a 7.6% increase in 2007.
Copyright © Press Association 2008
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