DP #3: Food Waste in gastronomy industry

Our consumption-oriented society produces a lot of waste, what was already shown in my previous posts. Even though there are still a lot of measures to be undertaken, there are many good initiatives that already exist, which contribute to the reduction of food waste. In this post I would like to mention some general information about food recovery, organizations that are involved in this issue and an example of an existing law regulating food waste in gastronomy industry. In the end I will explain what are green restaurants.

Food recovery, which is sometimes also called food rescue, is basically a process of retrieving edible food that otherwise would be thrown away and giving it to people that actually need it. How does it actually work? Groceries stores, food vendors and of course restaurants donate the “rotten for them” food to organizations that afterwards distribute it. Even if there is many of, so called, food banks, food pantries or soup kitchens organizations, the problem of food waste is still not solved. I have already mentioned it in my previous posts. It is actually people ignorance that is the main problem. Normally people throw food because they do not need it anymore. They don’t think that somebody else may need it. However it is becoming a more serious problem with restaurants, which operates with much bigger amounts of food. But even restaurants owners seeing all the waste they produce do not think about the possibility of using it for some good purposes. What I want to highlight is that food rescue organizations should encourage restaurants to donate their wastes. This is the only way to make a change. The most frustrating issue is that even though there are many initiatives promoting these behaviors, we can still see landfills full of food waste.

As I have already mentioned there are a lot of organizations dealing with food waste and there are as many different structures as many organizations. I am going to present you two organizations that I consider to be from two opposite poles. Feeding America (1) is a big organization uniting other organizations and food banks. People can donate food or money via Internet (of course food has to be send by mail or delivered personally due to a lack of technology). Seeking information about Feeding America I was thinking, why do we need a “giant” national organization, while all the food banks are local? Unfortunately every little issue, measure or step in our world, no matter the purpose, has to be regulated and controlled from the top. If not, it would give to many opportunities to sue, create conflicts and “pointing fingers” at others. In England there is an organization called “Love Food, hate waste” (2). They believe that most of food wastes are caused by our strong love to high consumption. Many campaigns are being organized to teach people how to cook less and in a more efficient way or how to use food wastes to prepare a fresh delicious meal by giving recipes. Basically this organizations are educating people, how to consume less, i.e. something that for my grandparents was a normality. I really like this kind of initiatives because it shows people how to live and I strongly believe that it is by showing example that we can make a change. I wanted to attach in this place a short video showing what other measures are being undertaken in this topic.

Pinche aquí para ver el vídeo

Sometimes restaurants chains are looking for excuses not to donate food. They are defending themselves that someone may get food poisoning or other disease and then sue them. In America in 1996 a law called The Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act was issued to legally protect companies, restaurant or groceries stores. Everything seems perfect, isn’t it? But again there was a problem of information diffusion. Restaurants didn’t know about it, so they were still keeping their food waste locked in garbage bins. Maybe the problem was that the law is not imposing food donation, but on the other hand such a solution could be seen as limiting liberty. In Europe such laws still do not exist.

An American NGO Green Restaurant Association (GRA) (3) is giving the Green Restaurant title since 1990. There are seven categories, in which the restaurants are being checked:

1. Water efficiency

2. Waste reduction and recycling

3. Sustainable furnishing and building materials

4. Sustainable food

5. Energy

6. Disposables

7. Chemical and pollution reduction

Each day more and more people are interested in eating in such places and GRA is a database for customers. It is a connection between restaurant clients and the restaurant itself. In my opinion such initiatives are very important, because they not only give prestige to a certain restaurant but also influence customers and employees. A Green restaurant owner, Jim Solomon from the Fireplace Restaurant, said: “I realized about a 45% return on my investment in one year and cut approximately $1200 off my annual operating costs. Not only am I pleased with the financial results of my decision, I also know that my association with GRA has inspired employee morale.” Even though he sounds like a real businessman that does not care about nothing else than his business, it seems like the GRA goal was achieved. It encouraged people to “go green” and to contribute making a change in gastronomy industry food waste problem.

Those were some of the measures that are being undertaken to reduce food waste. All of them are good initiatives, but more effort is needed. In my opinion we should put more weight on word of mouth. It is still the best solution know to men for a good marketing strategy. By showing example and telling people about it we may spread the information wide enough. My next entry will be wholly dedicated to developing possible solutions to food waste reduction in gastronomy industry.

References:

1. Feeding America – http://feedingamerica.org/how-we-fight-hunger/mission-and-values.aspx
2. Love Food, hate waste – http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/about_food_waste
3. Green Restaurant Association – http://www.dinegreen.com/restaurants/default.asp

1 comentario / 31 Dec 2011 por Piotr Adam Lubiewa-Wielezynski
IMSD /

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