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Waste not, want not: 5 tips to trimming restaurant food waste

Customers now expect it. Your business benefits from it. The planet demands it. Trimming the food waste your pizza brand generates is no longer an option, but a business and environmental necessity. Here's how to start.

How much food ends up here at your pizza brand? (Photo: iStock)

March 4, 2020 by Matthew Hollis — President, Elytus

Food waste is an ongoing battle for pizza brands, along with their diners. In fact, according to Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Date (ReFED), consumer-facing businesses waste $52 billion a year on food that is never eaten. With the consequences of food waste growing by the day, many brands have stepped up their efforts in this realm. 

For instance, recently, a host of major retailers signed on to a food waste reduction initiative called 10x20x30, which charges 10 retailers to engage 20of their suppliers to halve their food waste by 2030. In this case, retailers like Walmart, Kroger, Ikea and others are involved, but the effort is just one of many signs that pizza brands, among others, should — if they haven't already — be planning for action to cut their brands' production and disposal of food waste. 

And the reasons for doing this are not just because it's an environmental and customer imperative. These types of changes have monetary value as well for pizza brands. According to a recent study, modern consumers are more interested in high-quality, natural, organic products than in paying rock-bottom prices. 

In another recent study by Unilever, 72% of U.S. diners said they care about how food waste is handled. Another 47% said they were concerned enough that they would be willing to spend more money to eat at a place that actively tries to reduce its food waste production. 

Naturally, subjects like this that are customer priorities will also become brand priorities for pizza restaurateurs with a success mindset. Toward that end, then, here are some pointers for starting a food waste reduction initiative at your pizza brand.

Conduct a waste audit

Do you know how much your facility throws away? It's hard to cut waste before you know how much you currently produce. 

Take some time to measure how much waste your locations generate over the course of a week. Once you have a baseline measurement of your food waste, you can tackle the problem at the source by first forecasting future volumes and then seeking opportunities to reclaim the value in your waste.

Know your inventory

Leaner inventory management is one of the most effective ways you can prevent food waste. If your brand and its locations routinely report throwing away expired food, re-evaluate ordering behaviors and quantities. 

For instance, consider spacing out orders for items with shorter shelf-lives. Also consider technologies that can help forecast volumes to strengthen the supply-and-demand relationship.

Educate employees

Every day, your kitchen staff members make decisions that directly impact your brand's profit margin and bottom line. Improperly or inadequately trained employees can add time, money and resources to a brand's operating expenses when they dispose of perfectly good food or improperly store ingredients. 

Employees who neither understand or know to use caution when preparing food and taking orders are bound to waste food. Educate your employees to ensure the waste-reduction efforts you've planned are actually taking place. 

Donate to organizations assisting the food-insecure 

According to the organization, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, one in every seven Americans is food-insecure, with 49 million individuals unsure of when their next meal is coming. Pizza brands can donate edible food they are otherwise unable to sell to outside organizations that assist the food-insecure. 

Check out resources and mobile apps that help with this task of diverting food to charity, including tools like Food Cowboy, Goodr and others. 

Track, then tweak efforts

Data is any pizza brand's ally in its efforts to cut waste. After all, brand leaders can only truly understand the effectiveness of their initiatives by tracking the results of such efforts. 

Measure how much waste is being generated weekly and its overall type to get a clear picture of whether your efforts truly are cutting food waste output. Then, make sure to tweak the parts that you identify that aren't pulling their weight, so to speak. 

Try these five aforementioned tips to get your pizza brand set up for success with food waste reduction. Then, with that task under control, your brand can begin communicating these efforts and their success to customers, allowing you to enjoy both the "halo" of good citizenship, as well as the cost savings of your efforts and increased patronage from supportive diners.