15 January 2018 Guide

Measuring and reporting food waste in hospitality and food service

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WRAP's research shows that food waste in the UK hospitality and food service sector is costing businesses £2.5bn each year. Making improvements to how food waste data is collected and measured can make tangible savings to the bottom line.

New guidance, produced under the Courtauld Commitment 2025, can help businesses improve the measurement, management and reporting of food waste.

"The implementation of food waste services within the hospitality & food services sector is vital to treat unavoidable food waste sustainably, and there are environmental and economic benefits of converting it into ‘green energy’ as part of a wider recycling scheme.  As part of this solution, quality data is all important, and by measuring food waste and providing producers with clear outputs, we can help our customers resolve this important issue. We were pleased to participate in this programme and show how resource management providers can play an active role in initiatives to reduce food waste across the sector through improved data availability."
Matthew Osmond, General Manager - National Accounts, Veolia UK

The guidance has been developed by business for business, including leading hospitality and food service organisations,  waste management companies and technology providers. It includes:

Food waste measurement guidelines

  • Track the amount of food waste collected
  • Understand how much food (and packaging) remains in the general waste stream
  • Identify how much can be save financially by throwing away less food

Clauses for measuring, monitoring and reporting food waste

  • Includes sample clauses for tendering and contracting waste management services.
  • Can help promote food waste prevention and improved recycling of the material collected.

Food waste reporting guideline

  • Discover the benefits of the new Food Loss and Waste Standard.
  • Helps hospitality and food service businesses deliver robust food waste measurement as part of a waste reduction strategy.
  • Includes guidance on what and how to measure, and provides a consistent standard for those businesses wishing to report their food waste.
  • The new guidance has been produced with input from Courtauld 2025 signatories, including Pizza Hut and Veolia:
"In order to reduce waste of any type, all businesses must first understand where they are starting from.The results of the great collaboration on this taskforce means that my business will now have access to really good data, to allow us to make really good decisions, ultimately leading to a reduction in food waste.  We also feel that this is an industry wide problem that needs an industry wide solution.  As a restaurant business we compete with our peers on the experience we provide to our guests, not how much waste goes into the bins, and feel that we had the opportunity to help drive down waste across the sector by improving accuracy and availability of data for everyone.  We were therefore not just comfortable about working on something that would benefit others, but were excited to do so and are delighted with the results"
Steve Packer, Head of Supply Chain, Pizza Hut Restaurants UK

We welcome feedback on these new guidelines. Please email us with any comments and questions.

Download files

  • WRAP-Suez-case-study-0.pdf

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  • WRAP-Pizza_Hut_case_study.pdf

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  • WRAP-Food_waste_reporting_guidelines_HaFS_1_0.pdf

    PDF, 378.13 KB

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  • WRAP-Clauses_measurement_reporting_food_waste_HaFS.pdf

    PDF, 264.33 KB

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  • WRAP-Food_waste_measurement_guidelines_HaFS_0.pdf

    PDF, 601.27 KB

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Tags

Initiatives
Future-proof food
Sectors
Hospitality and food service

Related pages

Supporting resources for the Hospitality and Food Service sector

The Courtauld Commitment 2025