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Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, explains why food waste remains a major challenge for the UK hospitality industry and how state-of-the-art technology can provide future-focused solutions.
Each year, the hotel industry contributes more than £93 billion directly to the UK economy and up to £121 billion indirectly. With a workforce of over 3.5 million, it is the country’s third largest employer (after retail and social work), with 1 in 20 Britons aged 16 and over (7% of employed adults) employed Work in a hotel environment.
The industry’s compound annual growth rate is 5.9%, almost twice the growth rate of the UK’s overall economy, and demand for employees is increasing by an average of 17% annually. The sector accounted for 3% of national business investment in 2019, with growth and development seen as a key long-term priority. All in all, it is safe to say that the industry is vital to the success of the economy and remains a key contributor to the UK’s financial performance.
Yet while the statistics paint a perfectly enticing picture of resilience, robustness and acceleration, the hospitality industry has had a painful few years. The Covid-19 pandemic has effectively brought many venues to a standstill, and the long road to recovery remains far from smooth.
In fact, footfall may have increased tenfold compared to 2020 with the national lockdown and the infamous Eat Out to Eat Out initiative, but overall footfall at most venues is still lower. Add to that rising food costs, volatile energy prices, a well-publicized workforce crisis, rising rents and ongoing supply chain disruptions, and what appears to be a calm swan is actually paddling furiously beneath the surface.
As a result, Hotel Market Monitor data shows that nearly 23,000 hotel companies have permanently closed their doors in the past three years, including 6,000 in 2023 alone. What’s more, investment is at an all-time low as cash reserves are used to pay bills and wages. The industry is in trouble, and with 99% of the market made up of small and medium-sized enterprises, the chances of corporate rescue are slim.
With so many venues sounding the alarm, discussing waste management may seem in poor taste. However, amidst the imperatives of tightly managing overheads, planning for changes, anticipating the unexpected and avoiding unnecessary costs where possible, it is worth noting that adopting a sustainable approach can bring wide-ranging financial and environmental benefits.
Is food waste really a big problem?
While historically overlooked as a “vital part” of the job, one of the highest costs faced by the hospitality industry is food waste. WRAP’s 2021 data shows that the restaurant and food service industry loses approximately 1.08 tons per year to food waste, most of which (800,000 tons) could have been eaten.
But it’s not just the financial cost of food waste that’s worrying. The impact on the environment is also a concern. After all, food waste left to rot in landfill produces greenhouse gases that are thought to be 21 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide – another challenge for an industry bound by sustainability and decarbonization goals.
However, it’s important to note that waste is nothing new to the hospitality industry and there are many ways to tackle the problem head-on. From improving inventory control and using leftovers, to simplifying menu choices, ditching garnishes and streamlining portion sizes, a few simple changes can have a big business impact without compromising the dining experience.
Leveraging technological advances to minimize avoidable food waste
The most forward-thinking hotel companies are now embracing next-generation technologies to accelerate waste reduction and increase cost efficiencies through process automation. The most exciting of these include solutions that leverage big data and artificial intelligence to solve previously complex operations.
For example, Tenzo is a management and forecasting app that compiles weather data, growth trends and all of a restaurant’s past data to produce traffic forecasts that are 50 percent more accurate than using traditional methods. More accuracy means less waste.
Winnow is another company demonstrating the power of data. Scales and artificial intelligence cameras equipped with computer vision algorithms record the weight and type of food as it is thrown into the bin.
The most forward-thinking hotel companies are now embracing next-generation technology.
Staff then select an option from a touch screen on the wall above to indicate the cause of the waste (for example, a kitchen error or a customer complaint). The result is that, if used correctly, food waste can be cut in half.
Automated inventory management systems like Choco are another great example of providing a cost-effective way to address food loss and waste through more accurate demand forecasting and real-time inventory level monitoring.
Elsewhere, self-service ordering technology can help restaurants avoid mistakes that lead to food waste, while redistribution apps such as Too Good To Go provide consumers with a mechanism to buy leftover food at a discount.
What about the inevitable part?
While technology-based solutions can help solve the problem of food waste in the supply chain, there will always be a small amount of waste that is unavoidable. We need to think carefully about the best solutions for unavoidable waste from an environmental and financial perspective, rather than relying on landfill disposal.
Luckily, there’s a simple solution – food waste recycling. On an industrial scale, food waste recycling uses the anaerobic digestion (AD) process to capture the biogas released during the natural degradation of food. The gas can be burned to produce renewable electricity or upgraded and injected directly into the natural gas grid.
Nothing is wasted in the process. Even the resulting digestate can be used by farmers as a sustainable liquid biofertilizer. All in all, this is a highly sustainable option for hospitality businesses to consider.
A solution for the future?
The environmental benefits of food waste recycling are clear, but what about the financial implications? Surely “going green” is expensive and time-consuming? Since there is no need to pay expensive landfill taxes, hotel companies can expect to save about 50% of waste management costs by implementing food waste recycling services. What’s more, the entire process is quick and easy to put together—a win-win situation.
So, with reduced overheads and improved sustainability credentials becoming an important consideration, I implore all hospitality businesses who are not already doing so to consider recycling their food waste – the benefits are countless. It’s greener, safer and most importantly, cheaper!
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