1. BMPs for Commercial & institutional Wasted food reduction/Recovery
Athena Lee Bradley
Northeast Recycling Council

2. Food Waste Reduction Alliance
Study done by BSR

3. Percent of total purchased food Percent of trash
Percent Wasted
Restaurants
Percent of total purchased food
11.3% Full Service / 9.55% Fast-Food
Percent of trash
66% Full Service / 52% Fast-food
Retailers - Percent of wasted food
Fresh fruit - 1.4%, fresh vegetables - 9.7%, fresh meat, poultry, & seafood - 4.5%
total amount of purchased food - U. Arizona
BSR
USDA – much higher at convenience stores

4. Percent Donated or Recycled
Restaurants
Donated, 1.4% (surveys vary 20-70%)
Recycled, 14.3%
Of this, more than 70% is cooking oil recycling
Manufacturing
Donated or recycled 94.9%
More than 85 percent is repurposed for animal feed
Retail/wholesale
Donated or recycled 42.4%
Composting & donation
BSR Survey - Analysis of U.S. Food Waste Among Food Manufacturers, Retailers, and Restaurants
Prepared for the Food Waste Reduction Alliance

6. Benefits Save $ - reduced commodities, labor, energy, disposal costs
Improved worksite sanitation
Recognition
Access to tax credits
Community engagement/social benefits
Environmental

7. Wasted Food—Restaurants, Cafeterias
Back of the house/pre-consumer
Expiration/spoilage, trim waste, incorrectly prepared food/overcooked, dropped, overproduction
Service stations – salad bars, self-serve, deli stations, misordered product, expired grab & go
Leftover catering
Front of house/customer/post-consumer
Plate waste

8. Wasted Food—Retailers
From transport - bruising, spoiling, drying
On shelf - piling, touching, dropping
No longer fresh “looking”/ “ugly”
Customers shop based on food appearance
Sell-by & best-by dates confuse retailers & shoppers
Mistakenly perceived as no longer fresh or safe enough to sell

9. Getting Generators on Board
Assist with waste audits/assessments
Provide training & resources
Promote the organics hierarchy
How to “right size” trash collection
Know donation & composting options
Grant money
Recognition
Benefits!

10. Waste Audit/Assessment
Understand food service practices & how they generate inefficiency/waste
Determine baseline
Look at each point of generation
Pre-Consumer
Receiving, prep, production
Service: hot line, deli, salad bar
Post-Consumer
See NERC’s Waste Audit and Waste Assessment  and Waste Assessment and Waste Audit forms for specific information.

13. Engage key stakeholders – “SWAT”
Key Steps
 Engage key stakeholders – “SWAT”
Review data, set waste minimization goals
Revise procedures, policies, menus
Daily overview/discussion; weekly meetings
Track/control systems
Ongoing measure of pre-consumer waste
Periodic review of plate waste – portion sizes
Stop Waste Action Team
What waste reduction & diversion practices are already in place? Do all personnel participate?
What is being thrown out & why?
Are there reduction, recovery, recycling, or compost options for dealing with it? 
If food went bad, was it incorrectly dated? Not rotated? Were cooked items burnt? 
Are portions too large?

14. Staff Training Employee orientation Ongoing
Staff meetings – solve issues as a team
Monitor staff compliance
Friendly competitions
Recognition/rewards
Consistent messaging, signage
Seek Feedback/Provide Feedback
Give periodic updates-$saved, food scraps diverted
Address staff turnover

15. Wasted Food Reduction BMPs
Make wise purchasing decisions
Reduce inventory size, order more frequently
Practice proper storage/rotation
Invest in high-quality preparation & processing equipment
Specialized knives
Bulk food purchasing & dispensers
for peeling of fruits and vegetables or knives for filleting and cutting meat or fish. These seemingly small differences in the quantity of food waste in the long period have a major impact on reducing waste and increasing your profit.

16. BMPs, cont. Batch Cooking Consider secondary uses for excess food
Soups, salads, daily specials
Change the dishware
Smaller plates & glasses will reduce portions
Set smaller plates with food on larger plates to make portions look bigger

17. BMPs, cont. Monitor plate waste - adjust menu & portions
Allow employees to take home leftovers
Go trayless - students waste 25-30% less food without tray option
“Waste Awareness Drives”

18. Properly maintain perishable foods & groceries displays
Retail Specific BMPs
Properly maintain perishable foods & groceries displays
Rotate older products in front of newer ones
Discount food that isn’t at peak freshness or “ugly” produce
Use in prepared deli foods, soups, etc.

19. Food Recovery Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act
Richard Russell National School Lunch Act
Amended to clarify that schools who donated food to charity are protected by Good Samaritan Laws
USDA & EPA recognize schools
K12FoodRescue.com - "Getting Started"
Reduces food scrap disposal needs
Helps those in need
Food to animals – helps farms
USDA - Food waste challenge
EPA - Food Recovery Challenge

20. Barriers to Donating Food
Transportation constraints
Insufficient storage/refrigeration on site
Liability concerns
Regulatory constraints
Insufficient storage/refrigeration at food banks
Confusion over use by/sell by dates
Most restaurants do not track waste…so the claim we don’t have enough to donate may not be based on fact

21. Food Recovery BMPs Know characteristics of suitable food –
Types of acceptable food
Food safety is key - trained staff, temperature control, timing, sanitation
Develop directory of food recovery organizations
Promote benefits—tax credits, liability protection, community benefits

22. Food Recovery BMPs, cont.
Partnership building
Effective communication & relationships
Assist food recovery organizations in setting up route densities
Or, alternative means of transportation
Recordkeeping
Promote/Recognize participants

23. Food Recovery in Action

24. Farm Gleaning

25. Food for Animals

26. Grow Compost Vermont Food recovery, food to chickens, food to compost
Closing the loop

27. Grow Compost Vermont, cont.

28. Recognition

29. Universal Signs & Symbols
Shared Resources
DropBox, Google Docs, website downloads, etc.
Consistent Images
Consistent Colors

31. NERC Can Help Fee for service makes NERC’s expertise available at a
We’re experts in
Fee for service makes NERC’s expertise available at a
Waste reduction & recycling
Recycling program design & implementation
Organics management
reasonable price with outstanding results
Green procurement
C&D reuse & recycling
Electronics recycling
Athena Lee Bradley
School reuse, recycling & composting
Textile recycling programs
Multi-stakeholder dialogues & negotiations
& More!