Prevent Wasted Food Through Source Reduction
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EPA's Wasted Food Scale
Preventing wasted food, or source reduction, is the top tier of the Wasted Food Scale. Preventing food from going to waste by growing, buying, and preparing only what is needed saves grocery money and reduces the environmental impacts of wasted food. When food is wasted, all the resources that go into producing, processing, distributing, and preparing that food are wasted too.
Both businesses and individuals can learn to effectively prevent wasted food by taking simple steps such as making grocery lists, inventorying supplies, and buying only what you need.
Learn about preventing wasted food at home.
Benefits
- Save energy and resources associated with growing, preparing, and transporting food, including land and water use.
- Prevent pollution from food production, such as application of fertilizers and pesticides.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the food supply chain and reduce methane emissions from landfills and other disposal methods.
- Save money by buying only what is needed and by avoiding disposal costs.
- Save labor costs through more efficient handling, preparation, and storage of food that will be eaten.
- Feed more people with the amount of food currently produced.
What Communities Can Do
States, territories, local governments, Tribes, or nongovernmental organizations may wish to assist their community members in preventing wasted food in the first place. The "Preventing Wasted Food in Your Community: A Social Marketing Toolkit" is a resource for organizations that want to start behavior change campaigns to prevent wasted food in their communities. It is designed to be used by governments and NGOs to assist people in reducing wasted food in the home. The toolkit includes a planning process that uses social marketing principles to ensure campaigns are tailored to specific communities.
What Businesses Can Do
Conduct a Waste Audit
Learn about what flows through your kitchen by measuring the amount and type of wasted food. Knowing how much and why wasted food is generated will help create effective wasted food prevention strategies. It will also help identify wasted food that can be avoided and how much money can be saved. This analysis is called a "waste audit."
Depending on your goals, EPA offers a variety of free tools to conduct a waste audit. Other organizations also have guidance on measuring food waste, such as the Center for Environmental Cooperation’s Why and How to Measure Food Loss and Waste: A Practical Guide 2.0. With the results of your waste audit, you are ready to take the next steps below.
Implement Source Reduction
Several approaches can help you prevent food from going to waste.
- Compare purchasing inventory with customer ordering.
- Modify menus to increase customer satisfaction and prevent and reduce uneaten food.
- Examine production and handling practices to prevent and reduce preparation waste.
- Ensure proper storage techniques.
- Be creative with your kitchen excess. Surplus or excess food can be used in new dishes. For example, stale bread can become French toast or croutons; fruit can become a dessert topping; and vegetable trimmings can be used in soups, sauces, and stocks.
- Reduce serving sizes as appropriate and avoid garnishes that won’t get eaten.
- For buffet-style service, encourage customers to take only what they will actually eat.
- For colleges, go trayless in the dining halls.
Success Stories
Disclaimer of Endorsement: Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.
Conagra Brands
Conagra (a U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champion) has been taking steps throughout its supply chain to reduce food waste and save resources. For example, in 2021, Conagra’s Oakdale, California, Hunt’s and RO*TEL facility eliminated over 7,000 tons of tomato and jalapeño waste by reviewing their batch process that previously led to unnecessary ingredient spoilage.
Captain’s Galley Restaurant at Pickwick Landing State Park
Captain’s Galley Restaurant in Counce, Tennessee, weighs and tracks all its food that is disposed of, recovered, and composted. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation receives the waste logs and trains restaurant staff on source reduction techniques to prevent food waste from being generated, improve overall efficiency, and repurpose any remaining food waste. Some of the most successful food reduction methods include:
- Waste tracking and prep planning.
- Developing menu specials to use food close to the end of its shelf life.
- Consistent monitoring and coaching of staff to improve work processes.
In 2018, with 73,568 visitors, the restaurant was able to divert 22 tons of food waste from landfills through source reduction, food recovery, and on-site composting.
Sodexo
Sodexo is a major food service and catering company and another U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champion. Sodexo deploys its proprietary waste reduction program to track and automatically analyze data in its kitchens. The data gives clear insight into what a kitchen is wasting and why. Teams use the data to make informed operational and behavioral changes that prevent food waste from happening. In 2021, Sodexo eliminated 4,170,582 pounds of food waste in North America.
Visit this EPA webpage to search for other waste management successes.