Food Waste: what a shame!
Easter is approaching, which means: eggs, food and chocolate! It’s the time to have a family get together and have a nice meal. Already, a huge range of luxury Easter foods have begun appearing on the supermarket shelves. So, what better time to discuss the enormous amount of food that is wasted worldwide.
Procurement savings
Every year, an average consumer throws out over a hundred pounds of edible food, worth about £1.9 billion. The amount of food that ends up in restaurant and caterers’ bins is huge. In the chain between the farms and supermarkets, another 1.75 billion pounds worth of food is wasted, sometimes that’s just because misshapen vegetables are rejected. A solution to this problem is urgently needed.
Worldwide, the percentage of food waste lies between 30 and 50%, so of the food we produce, we throw away a third. Meanwhile the global population continues to grow. It is no surprise that with all those tons of food we waste, we could easily feed the hungry. By preventing food waste, you save money and contribute to a better environment. How? LABELLORD offers a number of solutions to help you with this issue.
Mismatch purchase & sales
How much food is wasted by your company every day? We have seen examples in which more than half of the products in refrigeration or cold storage ended up in the bin. These products had passed the expiry date and many of the packages were unopened. Too many hospitality companies lack a tight procurement policy, partly because there is no proper food coding or no food coding at all.
Having a strict procurement policy and coding your food, enables you to prevent loss and save costs. On average, the purchasing of food in the hospitality industry amounts to 25% of the costs. By preventing loss, you might be able to save 10% on your ingredients and 2.5% on your total costs. Looking at the turnover of an average restaurant in the UK, this means that you can save several thousand Pounds every year.
Salvaging tons of food
In the Netherlands, popup-restaurant INSTOCK opened its doors. Its’ Chef uses products that would have otherwise been discarded. On a daily basis, supermarket ‘Albert Heijn’ delivers products, that cannot be sold anymore, but are perfectly edible. Because these products are prepared the same day, the menu constantly changes. This concept has proven to be very successful and another two restaurants have already opened. INSTOCK now also has a Food Truck and provides on-site catering. For more inspiration, check out www.instock.nl/en/.
Our solutions
LABELLORD stands for safe food. This is why Karel van der Molen, Business Unit Manager at LABELLORD, was invited by the Dutch government as a guest speaker at the ‘Food Summit’ of 2017. This Summit was an initiative of various Dutch ministries to talk about future food policy. Various topics were discussed, including safe, healthy and sustainable food.
Food safety in the UK is of high standard, but 100% safe does not exist. To limit the risks, any company that processes foods, has to meet strict regulations. With LABELLORD solutions, you comply to these rules and save costs by preventing food loss and wastage in the process.
