{"id":2145,"date":"2022-11-21T08:24:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T08:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/polaris-elements.co.uk\/?p=2145"},"modified":"2022-11-30T14:08:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T14:08:24","slug":"reduce-waste-improve-your-bottom-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polaris-elements.co.uk\/reduce-waste-improve-your-bottom-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduce waste – Improve your bottom line"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the current climate of ever-increasing costs, rising inflation, and supply chain issues, it has never been more important to ensure that your business has a tight rein on ordering stock and inventory and menu management to ensure that waste is kept to a minimum.<\/p>\n
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), estimates that over 400 000 tonnes of food waste is generated by the hospitality sector each year equating to over \u00a3682 million in lost revenue.<\/p>\n
Not only that, but the waste is especially harmful to the environment, decomposing food emits methane gas which is 25 times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon monoxide.<\/p>\n
In this article, we would like to share with you several strategies that can easily be introduced to help reduce food wastage.<\/p>\n
Practice stock rotation: <\/strong><\/p>\n Adopt First in First Out (FIFO), when storing new stock items always ensure that you place it behind the current stock, ensuring that you use the oldest stock first.<\/p>\n Manage Stock<\/strong><\/p>\n Train your teams: <\/strong><\/p>\n Ensure that your teams are trained in the following:<\/p>\n Health & Safety not only from a compliance perspective, but 21% of all waste is from food spoiling – ensure that everything is stored correctly, the team must know how to avoid cross-contamination and prepare food correctly.<\/p>\n Stocktaking \u2013 How to stock take effectively recording low stock, label correctly highlighting best by and use-by dates.<\/p>\n Train your team to pay attention to what is being left on plates look for trends and if needed change your menu. For example, if customers are frequently leaving salad, chips or garnishes reassess whether they should be on the menu, adjust pricing and offer them as an extra side?<\/p>\n Communication is key, regular one to ones, team meetings are vital to keeping staff informed of stock levels, advising which dishes should be pushed by the Front of House team, as well as highlighting overstock or stock close to use-by dates which need to be incorporated into the menu by your chefs.<\/p>\n It is also vital to congratulate the team on savings, share successes with staff and where there is a need for improvement, brainstorm with the team as to how you can improve, and avoid a blaming\/critical atmosphere. The problem solving, we are all in this together approach, will help to engage the team with the strategy rather than being fearful of wastage.<\/p>\n Have a plan for leftover food<\/strong><\/p>\n There is also a strong business case to invest in technology to support reducing food waste. (Champions12.3)<\/p>\n Summary findings: <\/strong><\/p>\n After introducing food waste strategies, Champions analysed the waste from 114 restaurant sites, located across 12 countries, and calculated the following results:<\/p>\n\n
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