The Sustainable Shift Drink

Since the NRA and everyone else is currently listing their predictions and “What’s Hot” for 2013, I thought I would through a few out there. Just three in fact – you’re just leveraging your odds when you list ten. So here it goes.

1. Food Waste – Nothing new here. In fact, 2012 seemed to be the year of food waste. Everyone from the New York Times to Foodservice Equipment Supplies Magazine was writing about food waste. It’s a huge issue globally and people are starting to realize the effect it has on their pocket book and the environment. This is going to stay a strong issue for a while, and likely just get more focused and complex as the industry becomes more interested and better educated.

2. Water – There are always stories in the media about water and water shortage, but I think it is going to become a big topic this year, and not just in the foodservice industry but everywhere. For the foodservice industry it is going to be a broad issue. Rising food prices because of drought are effecting menu pricing and profit margins, aging sewer systems will start driving utility costs up, and a large push for innovative, water efficient equipment will all drive the focus on water efficiency.

3. GMOs – This isn’t a new issue, there has been a big push from the food production industry to get GMOs into the marketplace where they already are not, but became a big issue late last year as the FDA approved GM salmon for human consumption. This is going to be a tipping point for many. The potential for GM salmon to taint the wild salmon populations is going to garner opposition from a huge and diverse of collection of groups that normally have nothing to do with each other. Celebrity chefs will be climbing over the top of each other to shout their opposition to GM fish with support from commercial fishing organization, conservative hunting and fish groups, virtually everyone in Alaska, environmentalists, Native organizations, health advocates, politicians, and scientists from all over the world as this fish has the potential to effect native fish populations globally.

Tags: food waste, GM, salmon, water
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Our friends at LeanPath  just published a new infographic on the problem of food waste. Check it out on their new site foodwastestats.com

Tags: food waste, infographic
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I just came across this cool video produced by a Monaghan County Council in Ireland that equates food waste to throwing away money. I’ve never seen it more succinctly put.

Tags: food waste
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1. Start-up, Shutdown Schedules
Not everything needs to be turned on right away when the first cook arrives. Equipment start-up schedules similar to just-in-time ordering saves energy with no investment.

2. Low flow aerators
These are potentially one of the lowest priced efficiency measures a restaurant can buy. Aerators range from .50 to a several dollars and return the investment almost instantly.

3. Pre-rinse Sprayers
At about $60, these devices pay for themselves in about a week depending on your usage and prior sprayer. Some of the newest units on the market use as little as .65 gallons per minute compared to the old units that use around 3.5 gpm. New regulations require all pre-rinse sprayers to use no more than 1.6 gpm so go as low as you can find.

4. Turbo Pots
Research from the Food Service Technology Center shows that Turbo Pots use about half as much energy to boil a pot of water compared to a standard pot. If you have a pot of water boiling all day in your kitchen these pots are a must have.

5. Thawing Meats
A little bit of organization and scheduling could save many restaurants thousands of gallons of water and hundreds of dollars a year. If you must thaw meats with running water make sure the faucet has a low-flow aerator, and turn the flow down to just enough to keep water flowing across the product – not full blast.

6. CFLs
They are simple and almost old school at this point, but CFLs save a lot of money. Today’s CFLs are cheap and high quality, but don’t buy the cheapest ones you can find. You get what you pay for. Use them in hoods, storage areas, offices, back halls and walk-in coolers.

7. Training
All the green gadgets and gizmos in the world don’t save money unless the users are using them correctly. Moreover, training staff to be conscious about the resources they are using will go much further than any piece of energy efficient equipment.

8. Recycling
Even restaurants that currently recycle should audit their garbage once in a while. More than likely, recyclables are being thrown away and potentially costing the business extra hauling fees. Recycling is a simple task, and can cut a garbage bill in half if the restaurant is not currently taking part in the practice.

9. Composting
Food waste makes up something around 50% of the volume and 75% of the weight of most full service restaurants. Implementing a composting program can be a little more involved, but like recycling it soon becomes second nature to the staff.

10. Food Waste Tracking
Before starting a composting program, start tracking the restaurant’s food waste, and make changes to reduce that waste. Whether through simple paper logs or more complex digital systems like Leanpath, food waste tracking helps chefs and management actualize their waste and make adjustments to par lists, menus or schedules.

Tags: aerators, composting, energy efficiency, food waste, Recycling, Waste Reduction, water efficiency
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I recently posted a couple articles about food waste in the news section of sustainablefoodservice.com. One was on the regulation of food waste, and the other about a restaurant group that has installed an on-site composting machine called the eCorect. I don’t normally post articles about specific restaurants going green, but this one brought up some specific thoughts for me.

What does sustainability mean when it comes to composting?

In the big picture, there are a lot of interworking systems that go into composting, and therefore carbon footprints. Large-scale industrial facilities have enormous infrastructure including aerators, heavy machinery and some sort of distribution system while small-scale systems like the eCorect have a large initial carbon footprint in the manufacturing of the machinery, and continue to consume energy throughout the machines life.

Large-scale worm bin that processes 120 gallons of restaurant food waste a week.

Smaller, traditional composting bins don’t use any power or need a huge infrastructure, but can’t process large amounts of material or any meats or dairy. They are usually just not practical for most restaurants. Other systems like large vermiculture systems are simple to build and can process large amounts of material, but you still need the space on-site to process the food waste. There are also anaerobic digesters and several types of on-site composting machines.

Despite the carbon footprint from the infrastructure of large-scale composting facilities that most restaurants will use, composting is the most sustainable option – there have been studies done… Ideally we would all have a compost bin out back, but that is obviously not practical nor is a composting machine in every restaurant.

I do think there is a place for every system depending on the foodservice operation. Small, rural restaurants may have enough room to have their own compost pile, an on-site composter or send their food scraps to a farmer, while urban restaurants are generally going to use composing machines or a commercial composting facility with regular food waste collection.

Whichever service is available or system used, restaurant owners need to start thinking about food waste if they are not already. As noted in the article from the UK, regulations on organic waste are on their way. San Francisco recently enacted mandatory composting, and many areas will soon follow as they build composting infrastructures.

This should be viewed as a good thing for restaurant operators. Composting whether with a hauler or on-site is cheaper than waste hauling and will only get more economical as landfills run out of space and gasoline prices continue to rise.

Tags: composting, food waste, Waste Reduction
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