Introduction

Written in collaboration with KITRO

Every year, about one third of all the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. In the UK, for example, about 1.3 billion meals – or one-sixth of the meals served – is wasted every year. Including packaging and other non-food waste, that’s about 2.87 million tonnes of waste. In 2018, this cost the sector £3.3 billion.

The impact extends beyond uneaten food. Behind any food item is the water, energy, packaging, transportation and manpower that went into bringing it to the table. And ahead of it lies the cost of disposal. Discarded food, like much of our garbage, goes on to sit in landfills producing methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) that’s a major contributor to global warming. If the amount of food wasted globally were represented as a country, it would be the third largest GHG emitter, after China and the US.

How you tackle this issue will depend on the type of property you run, where you’re based, what your supply chain looks like, and a host of other factors. There are several key steps that you can take to start immediately reducing your food waste. We’ll cover these in this section, as well as the positive impact they can have on your business and on the environment.