11 May 2021
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2 min read
A shakshuka made with surplus greens | Credit: Sustainable Restaurant Association
Guide will help restaurants save money and curb their emissions as they open next week after months-long hiatus, according to partners
Arla Pro, the food service division of dairy cooperative Arla Foods, has teamed up with the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) to publish a new guide to help chefs cut down on food waste ahead of the re-opening of restaurants across the UK next week.
The War on Waste guide, published today, provides kitchen staff with "tricks and tips" on how to save money and significantly reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the amount of food that is thrown away, the partners said.
The tool kit compiles "expert food waste hacks" from a trio of top chefs: Jake Mills of The Rising Sun pub in Bristol, Arlo Pro UK's head chef Jason Calcutt, and Ruth Hansom, head chef at the Princess of Shoreditch. Advice ranges from how to upsell dishes that would otherwise be wasted, the optimum ways to freeze cheese to preserve it for longer, and how to adopt a 'nose-to-tail' and 'fin-to-gill' approach to reduce waste when working with meat and fish.
Louisa Dodds, project manager at the SRA, said that tackling food waste could boost restaurants' profitability at a time when margins had been battered by months of successive lockdowns. "Chefs really shouldn't need any incentives to help them keep food on their customers' plates and out of the bin, given that food waste is costing the sector more than £3.2bn a year," she said. "By following the five simple steps in this guide and the chefs' top tips, there's an opportunity for all chefs to save serious money and be part of the climate solution - halving food waste by 2030."
Arla Pro and the SRA calculate the average kitchen can save £10,000 a year by tackling food waste, and as such claim the recommendations in the guide are more pertinent than ever as the hospitality industry prepares to re-open next week with "margins tighter than ever".
Jenna Hodgson-Silke, global marketing operations at Arla Pro, emphasised that tackling food waste needed to be a collaborative, industry-wide effort. "At Arla Pro, we're doing all we can to reduce our waste - from optimising production in our dairies through to collaborations with food banks - and we're now delighted to be working with the SRA to help our end-users in the hospitality industry to do the same," she said. "We know there's still so much to be done, but we hope that this guide will go some way to supporting kitchens across the country to do their bit. Because only through our collective efforts can we successfully fight the War on Waste."
Globally, around a third of all food produced is lost or wasted, which contributes between eight and 10 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to figures from waste charity WRAP.
