Reduce Commercial Kitchen Food Waste With Scrap Collector System

With food prices higher than ever before, there’s an increased emphasis on minimizing the food waste in your commercial kitchen. It’s not just about profitability. Customers are starting to spend more of their money with businesses that are good stewards of the environment.

Local municipalities have begun to weigh in as well with the state of Massachusetts placing limits on the amount of food waste that can legally be thrown in the trash.

Whether your commercial kitchen is trying to reduce food costs, be a good neighbor or help the environment, there’s a lot of incentive to reduce food waste.

If customers are leaving lots of food on their plates, then either the food quality needs to be improved, or the portion sizes are too big to eat for a single person. By focusing on a consistent portion size and making sure customers feel like they’re still getting their money’s worth, you can reduce food waste by tightening up your portion control.

It also might be time to take a closer look at your menu. The more items that you have on your menu, the more ingredients you will have to purchase. A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t carry an ingredient unless it will be used in multiple items on your menu. You can also get creative with your leftovers. See if your soup of the day can use up items that were left over from the previous day’s special.

Commercial kitchens should pay attention to the type and amount of food that is coming into the kitchen. It might seem like a good idea to buy a lot of food at once and stock up so orders don’t have to be placed as frequently. This can make sense for non-perishable items, like canned goods. But it can lead to a lot of waste with produce and perishables.

You should also pay more attention to how food should be stored to ensure the best quality and longest freshness. You shouldn’t store fruit and vegetables together. Fruit releases ethylene which can prematurely ripen and spoil surrounding produce.

Food products should be stored in proper and well-labeled containers to reduce the chance of cross contamination. Using a first-in-first-out (FIFO) system for inventory will ensure older products are used first and less waste occurs.

Once you’ve done everything you can to reduce the amount of food being ordered, you should also consider what steps you can take to eliminate food waste after it’s been prepared.

You can reach out to a local charity or food bank to donate any leftover meals from your commercial kitchen as well as ingredients to those people who anxiously need them.

Composting is a great method of reusing food parts that are used in cooking. Any part of raw vegetables can be composted, as well as stale bread, the skin of fruits, and egg shells that you can capture with a scrap collector system. This can also help eliminate potential plumbing problems with clogs from food waste.

With composting, any food scraps can be put off to the side and later into a compost bin that will break down the scraps and turn it into a soil that can be used for gardening or taken to a compost plant where it will also be broken down and reused.

You might even be able to set up a relationship with a local farmer where you provide food waste for their animal feed and composting and in return they can reduce your costs for providing local produce for your customers.

There can be a lot of positive publicity you can capitalize on in addition to the goodwill that you generate.

If you want to capture a lot of the food waste that is going down the drain from a commercial garbage disposal, consider installing The Drain Strainer™ scrap collector system.

The Drain Strainer™ can help you avoid issues with what gets put down your drains. No matter how much you focus on employee training, short cuts are always going to be taken and items are going to be put down your kitchen’s 3 compartment sink that can harm it.

If you want to avoid issues with garbage grinders that are leaking or have burned out motors, The Drain Strainer™ is an effective and affordable commercial disposal alternative.

Invented by a former restaurant owner, The Drain Strainer™ can eliminate issues with mangled silverware or dangers from employees putting their hands down the commercial garbage disposal trying to clear out a clog.

Click here to find out more about how our scrap collector system can keep the 3 compartment sinks in your commercial kitchen running smoothly.