True cost of Hospitality and Food Service waste revealed
Wrap, an organisation that helps businesses and individuals reduce waste, has recently published a report on the true cost of waste within the Hospitality and Food Service (HaFS) sector.
Its findings reveal that each year, the sector in the UK serves over 8 billion meals and produces over 2.87 million tonnes of food and associated packaging waste; of which nearly 1 million tonnes is food waste. Wrap believes that 75% of this food waste could have been eaten, and is equivalent to throwing away one in six meals served.
The yield losses were determined by dividing the weight of food waste by the weight of purchased food. The analysis shows that 17.8% of total food purchased by the HaFS industry by weight is wasted, of which 13.2% is avoidable and the remaining 4.6% is unavoidable.
Throwing this much food waste away has a considerable impact that goes beyond the commonly reported costs associated with waste collection.
The report highlights the vital role packaging plays in the sector in preserving food and drink throughout the supply chain, and calls for further packaging optimisation whilst stating that this must not be at the expense of food preservation.
Martin Kersh of the Foodservice Packaging Association (FSA) comments, “Although the Report looks at all aspects of food and packaging, the opportunities to recover packaging are clearly highlighted and our manufacturers and suppliers are very keen to work with the sector to help ensure a greater volume is recovered and dealt with appropriately.
“It is clear that there are significant opportunities for the sector to reduce costs and to increase recycling and we are confident that the programme Wrap has put in place, together with the report, will encourage the sector to achieve significant improvements. Our members will continue to work with the hospitality and foodservice sectors and with Wrap by supporting and promoting the agreement’s programmes and to help ensure the agreement’s targets are met wherever possible.”
– Simon Rowley
