Frequently Asked Questions for the Hospitality and Food Service sector

The ‘Guardians of Grub’ programme supports Hospitality and Food Service businesses to reduce the alarming amount of food wasted every single year.

The programme has been developed by WRAP, which has years of experience in helping food businesses to reduce the amount of food thrown away. The programme includes contributions from FoodSave, London, Manchester Met University and Love Food Hate Waste New South Wales.

You can use any type of container suitable for holding food. It is recommended to use small containers if on the counter, or buckets if on the floor. If you use counter top containers, any kitchen scales should be suitable. If you use buckets and/or transparent liners it may be easier to use luggage scales.

A baseline is the amount you are throwing away before you take any action. In the ‘Guardians of Grub’ starter pack we encourage you to establish a baseline before you take any action to give a realistic starting point. This could be week 1 using the 7 day tracker and then the calculator tool for a month. This will help show you where your waste is coming from so that you can work with your team to take action on throwing less away.

Having a ‘Guardians of Grub’ Champion to take the lead within your business really helps. There are some tips on what to do in the ‘Guardians of Grub’ checklist. Seeing really is believing, so often using transparent containers or sacks to see where the waste is coming from can be an eye opener. Talk through the results shown on the calculator, so that everyone can get involved about how to make a difference within your business.

As well as your hero, think about sharing particular responsibilities – maybe the baton can be handed to someone else for a day or two to ensure the tracking is still happening to make the best changes for your business.

Spoilage: Food that is damaged or out of date such as spoilt vegetables. Preparation: Food that is thrown away during preparation, such as offcuts, and food that is served but not saved. Plate: Food that is left on customers’ plates such as chips and garnishes. Other: Food thrown away, such as food that is ready to serve e.g. buffet, but not eaten

Carcasses would be part of preparation waste. You could consider using bones in stocks, or if you don’t use stock you could talk to your meat supplier about supplying meat off the bone.

Ideally the period that you track should capture both the busy and quiet periods in your week, as you may find on busy days you have more plate waste and on quiet days you have more preparation waste. By understanding how the food you throw away from each category varies, you will be in a better position to manage and hopefully reduce it.

It can be challenging to think about how this best works for you, but the key is to make it as easy as possible by working out the best place to put the bins, weighing food when you don’t have a rush on and keeping notes about what is wasted to a minimum.

Each of the tracking has space for a fourth category of waste.