The hospitality and food service (HaFS) sector throws away 1.1 million tonnes of food every year. 75% of this food could have been eaten, costing businesses and organisations £3.2 billion.
Guardians of Grub, a food waste prevention programme for HaFS delivered by global environmental action NGO WRAP, is calling on the sector’s CEOs and directors to rise up and lead the way in tackling food waste, ensuring that all food purchased is eaten and not binned. Currently, almost one fifth of food purchased by the sector is thrown away.
November is the time to get ahead of the sector’s busiest and most wasteful month of December, by putting in measures and actions to reduce food waste, cut costs and save money. Embedding WRAP’s principles of Target – Measure – Act provides a practical foundation that all food businesses and organisations can build on throughout the supply chain and work towards achieving 50% food waste reduction by 2030 (UN SDG12.3 goal).
There is a clear business and moral case for taking action to reduce food waste with an estimated saving of just over £9k a year if 50% food waste reduction was achieved in pubs, based on 1,000 covers a week. Research by the group Champions SDG12.3 which includes WRAP identified an average return on investment of 1:14 across a range of HaFS businesses; for every £1 invested in reducing food waste businesses realised a £14 return.
Harriet Lamb, CEO at WRAP, said: ‘We know how CEOs and directors in hospitality and food service, leading from the front, can inspire teams to reduce the shocking amount of food that’s binned. So we’re calling on more industry leaders to rise up and take a stand against food waste. It is tough for teams working flat out in busy kitchens so they need the leadership, guidance and support to adopt new habits, putting in place practical measures to ensure we are feeding people not bins – and saving the business money along the way.’
WRAP is asking CEOs and directors, to take a stand against food waste through their inspirational leadership by:
- Demonstrating to their teams and externally that they are fully committed to taking long-term measurable action to reduce their food waste by signing up to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap (no fees).
- Creating an environment where their staff and teams can thrive when embedding food waste actions within their business/organisation.
- Adding food waste prevention to their topline and department operational and financial reporting and to everyone’s objectives – from kitchens to boardrooms.
‘The pub and brewing sector is committed to putting sustainability at the heart of their businesses and our members’ pubs are already putting the Guardians of Grub resources to good use enabling them to feed people – not bins. Robinsons Brewery are already demonstrating annual savings of upwards of £2,000 per pub.’ Emma McClarkin OBE, Chief Executive, British Beer and Pubs Association.
The Guardiansofgrub.com website has all the resources that HaFS businesses and organisations need to kick-start their action. The Savings calculator helps to build the business case for food waste prevention action and leaders and their teams can quickly upskill themselves by taking the online Cost Savings Skills course.
Notes to Editor
WRAP is a global environmental action NGO catalysing policy makers, businesses and individuals to transform the systems that create our food, textiles and manufactured products. Together these account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse emissions. Our goal is to enable the world to transition from the old take-make-dispose model of production to more sustainable approaches that will radically reduce waste and carbon emissions from everyday products. To do so we examine sustainability challenges through the lens of people’s day-to-day lives and create solutions that can transform entire systems to benefit the planet, nature and people.
Our work includes: UK Plastics Pact, Courtauld Commitment 2030, Textiles 2030 and the campaigns Love Food Hate Waste and Recycle Now. We run Food Waste Action Week and Recycle Week.
Guardians of Grub was launched in 2019 and is a programme delivered by global environmental action NGO WRAP.
It brings together a community of people passionate about driving measurable action across the Hospitality and Food Service sector; energising the sector to rise up together to tackle their food waste by embedding Target – Measure – Act within their everyday food and financial processes - from kitchens to boardrooms, from menus to balance sheets.
It offers businesses and organisations in the hospitality and food service sector a range of free practical resources to support them with embedding Target – Measure – Act within their food and financial processes, leading to a reduction in food waste.
Guardians of Grub is launching a ‘Food Matters: make it count’ campaign throughout November 2024 to re-energise the sector to take action to reduce their food waste by making a formal commitment to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap.
The Food Waste Reduction Roadmap is the leading free access initiative for UK food businesses, developed by industry in collaboration with WRAP and the IGD.
Business case statistics – savings generated by the Guardians of Grub Savings calculator and return on investment identified in the SDG12.3 Champions report ‘The business case for reducing food loss and waste.’