Waste management: How to reduce food waste in your hotel

Whether it is to cut costs or reduce environmental impact, food waste has become one of the most important issues in the hospitality industry. Keep reading to find out how food waste occurs and how to reduce food waste in your accommodation.

The key points at a glance

• By reducing food waste, hotels can make significant cost savings, reduce their environmental impact, improve their reputation and increase productivity
• The most common causes of food waste are returned food and spoiled food
• To reduce food waste, you should train your staff on how to deal with food waste and also pay attention to food portions
• In addition, you should create an audit of your food waste and use dedicated waste tracker and food waste apps

Cost savings

With rising food costs, reducing food waste has become even more important for hotels. Hoteliers need to closely track their food waste, identify areas of excessive waste and implement targeted solutions. Minimising food waste avoids unnecessary spending on ingredients that end up being thrown away. It also improves inventory management and streamlines processes, resulting in real-world cost savings.

Environmental impact

Significant amounts of resources are wasted in the production, transport and disposal of food. Food waste, for example, is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Hotel reputation and guest satisfaction

In today's world, consumers are increasingly concerned about sustainability and ethics. People want to combine their holidays with minimal cost to the environment. By prioritising food waste management, hotels can improve their reputation for being environmentally friendly.

Increasing productivity

Effective food waste management goes hand in hand with operational efficiency. By using waste reduction strategies, hotels can optimise inventory management, streamline processes and improve overall kitchen efficiency.

In hotels, the causes of food waste are usually related to kitchen management - including the experience of kitchen staff as well as communication between the kitchen, suppliers, customers and service staff.

Food waste increases dramatically, for example, when a large number of guests skip the breakfast buffet or an event. On the other hand, food waste in hotels is often caused by food returned to the kitchen, leftovers and expired or spoiled food.

1. training of the staff

As your kitchen staff process the food, they play a crucial role in reducing waste. Therefore, it is important to explain your staff the purpose of saving resources and to establish measures to do so. Instead of throwing away leftover vegetables, they can be added to soups, for example.

2. pay attention to the food portions

The standard portions in hotel restaurants are often too big for the guests. Most of it then simply ends up in the waste. To reduce waste, you can adjust portion sizes or offer meals in different sizes. The service should also ask beforehand what the guests would like to have in their salads, for example. This will prevent unwanted ingredients from ending up in the waste without being used.

3. conduct a food waste audit

An audit gives you an overview of the amount of waste produced and its origin. It also helps you develop appropriate measures to minimise food waste. This includes, for example, reducing orders of products that spoil too quickly or are often not eaten.

4. take advantage of technology

There are several apps that can help your kitchen staff reduce food waste. Waste tracker apps, for example, show how much waste is produced in your hotel and where it comes from. Food save apps, on the other hand, give tips on how to avoid food waste in advance. And last but not least, there are apps like Too Good To Go, which allow restaurants to sell overproduced meals at a lower price instead of throwing them away.