Restaurants waste almost five times more food than the average UK household, according to the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), which has called on the industry to act now.
Hundreds of restaurants have taken steps to reduce food waste, but the SRA says that an industry average of almost half a kilo per diner is unacceptable.
SRA research shows that the average restaurant produces 21 tonnes of food waste a year, which works out as 0.48kg per diner per meal. According to WRAP, UK households produce 7.2m tonnes a year, which breaks down as 0.1kg per meal.
Mark Linehan, managing director of the SRA, said:
“Many restaurants are taking this issue seriously, embracing good kitchen practices, offering smaller portions and encouraging diners to take home leftovers. But wasting half a kilo per diner is unacceptable for business, the environment and customers. The industry as a whole must do more.”
Ask for a doggie bag
ITV’s Tonight programme, What a Waste, to be broadcast on Thursday 17 January at 7.30pm, includes a survey showing almost half of us have never asked for a doggie bag.
“Diners and restaurants need to work together and start equating value with quality rather than quantity. Restaurants should also make diners feel more comfortable about asking, and diners should feel free to ask to take home leftovers from a meal for which they have paid.” Mark added.
Thomasina Miers, owner of the Mexican street food restaurant group Wahaca which was involved in the SRA’s Too Good To Waste campaign, said it had reduced the amount food waste from diners’ plates by 20% since it started offering customers SRA doggy boxes.
Best Food Waste Strategy Award
The SRA is working with Unilever Food Solutions to find the restaurant with the best food waste strategy. The winner will be named at the Sustainable Restaurant Awards on 4 February.
The ‘Best Food Waste Strategy’ category, sponsored by Unilever Food Solutions, is the first award to be open to non-SRA members. It recognises and rewards businesses’ innovative sustainability systems that make a positive difference to the environment.
The category is open to all businesses in the hospitality sector, from independent pubs to national chains, hotels and contract caterers. All operators need to do is provide details of their business strategy for food waste management. This could include systems and equipment put in place to manage food waste, such as staff training and customer communication, along with any schemes or initiatives to reduce, reuse and recycle food waste – including Unilever Food Solutions’ free Wise up on Waste toolkit, www.unileverfoodsolutions.co.uk/wastetools.
Details responding to the above criteria should be emailed to: Ed Franklin, SRA, on ed@thesra.org.uk or posted to The Sustainable Restaurant Association, 25 Gerrard Street, London, W1D 6JL no later than Monday 28 January.