Greene King
Leading pub operator and brewer Greene King operates more than 200 Hungry Horse pubs across the country.
Branocs Tree Hungry Horse pub took part in a trial to monitor and reduce the amount of food being thrown away.
SUMMARY
Branocs Tree was able to identify savings and reduce the amount of food being thrown away through:
– Improved portion control;
– Optimising the use of ingredients; and
– Improved management of food prepared after the main evening peak service.
The trial successfully reduced food thrown away per cover by around 15% and achieved substantial financial savings. This equates to a reduction across the site of around 4 tonnes per year.
A smart meter to measure food waste was installed in the kitchen at Branocs Tree Hungry Horse to track spoilage and plate waste. By using this information, the site manager and head chef were able to understand why food was being thrown away, prioritise improvements and track their impact.
HOW THE SAVINGS WERE MADE
This showed that by making simple changes, big savings could be made:
– Portion sizes had crept up and leftovers were common.Through more careful portions coops significant savings were made possible.
– Simple changes to vegetable preparation helped to reduce the amount of food thrown away. For example, by carefully removing only the very central core of a pepper, at least 10% extra could be gained. Similar gains were made by not automatically discarding a large number of outer layers of onions.
TIP
Actively track food being thrown away at spoilage, preparation and plate stages.
“Working with WRAP we have been able to drive down food waste significantly through a combination of small changes. The trial has been a great success, making a real difference to our bottom line.”
Jeff Bones
Manager
HOW THE SAVINGS WERE MADE
A smart meter to measure food waste was installed in the kitchen at Branocs Tree Hungry Horse to track spoilage and plate waste. By using this information, the site manager and head chef were able to understand why food was being thrown away, prioritise improvements and track their impact.
This showed that by making simple changes, big savings could be made:
– Portion sizes had crept up and leftovers were common. Through more careful portion scoops significant savings were made possible.
– Simple changes to vegetable preparation helped to reduce the amount of food thrown away. For example, by carefully removing only the very central core of a pepper, at least 10% extra could be gained. Similar gains were made by not automatically discarding a large number of outer layers of onions.
– Too much food was being prepared late in the evening service period, after the main evening peak, which led to unnecessary spoilage. For example, defrosting a whole bag of 12 chicken portions at 8pm meant that some of these may have been wasted. By tracking bookings and customer numbers in the restaurant, requirements for defrosting and other preparation could be more carefully controlled, and wastage of high value ingredients reduced.
FURTHER SAVINGS POSSIBLE
These simple improvements resulted in substantial savings at Branocs Tree. The approach taken has the potential to be successfully applied in other Hungry Horse sites, and across other Greene King brands (such as Old English Inns, Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill and Belhaven Pubs). This will potentially bring even greater benefits and savings to the wider group.
In addition to the on site improvements, further opportunities were identified at Branocs Tree. For example, the tracking of plate waste highlighted particular dishes on the menu that were responsible for the majority of the waste, so further savings could be achieved through wider changes to the menus.