5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste

28 Apr 22

Did you know that around a third of food produced in the world every year goes to waste?

It’s Stop Food Waste Day, and we at Middleby UK want to raise awareness and hopefully help to improve upon this shocking statistic – so here are 5 simple ways that you can reduce your food wastage.

• Avoid over-orderingOne of the biggest mistakes made that leads to food waste is over-ordering. No restaurant wants to run out of ingredients during a busy service, leaving customers disappointed and dissatisfied, causing restauranteurs to succumb to the temptation of bulk ordering and over-ordering.

  Only ordering what you need will prevent you from throwing away large amounts of food, and will ultimately save you money in the long run. The easiest way to do this is to pre-plan your menu for the week or the month, so you know exactly what ingredients, and the quantity, that you will need.

• Temperature controlCorrect temperature control is crucial for food safety, as it prevents the growth of harmful bacteria, and slows down the spoiling process, resulting in less food wastage.

  The best ways to achieve correct temperature control are as follows;

  – Aim to cool hot food within 90 minutes, to avoid leaving it in the danger zone for too long.
  – Reheating food to the correct core temperature (at least 70˚C for 2 minutes).
  – Storing perishable food in fridges, between 1˚C and 4˚C, and freezers, below -18˚C.
  – Hot holding food at safe temperatures – the Carter Hoffmann Crisp ‘N Hold units are the perfect solution to hot holding, as they extend the life of food up to 4 times longer than using standard heat lamps!

• Find creative ways to use leftover ingredientsInstead of throwing away leftover ingredients, you should consider finding creative ways to use them. A few ideas include creating a ‘special’ menu item to incorporate the leftover ingredients, using them to cook meals for your employees to enjoy during work breaks, or even creating compost!

• Evaluate your menu regularly & pay attention to your least popular menu itemsAnother great way to reduce food wastage is to regularly assess your meal offerings. If there are certain ingredients that you frequently order, for menu items that aren’t that popular, it may be worth considering removing them in favour of an alternative that uses ingredients you already have.=

• Consider eliminating extrasIt’s very tempting to pack customers’ plates with side salads and other extras for presentation, but these extras are, more often than not, what end up coming back to the kitchen untouched.

  Simple tricks such as using a smaller plate, or checking with customers whether they actually want these extras, can help to significantly reduce food waste.

Where can I find out more?

If you would like more information on our hot holding solutions, to help you reduce your food waste, you can contact our team of experts on 01925 821 280 or at sales@middlebyuk.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can browse our full range of brands and solutions here – https://middlebyuk.co.uk/our-brands