Lesson 2: Chapter 4: The True Cost of Food Waste
Like an iceberg, many of the costs associated with food waste are hidden!
Food waste collection cost: < €200 per tonne
Food purchase cost: circa €3,000 per tonne
When calculating the true cost of food waste it is necessary to take the following costs into account:
• Purchase costs
• Storage costs
• Staff cost
• Waste disposal costs
For broccoli, one piece may cost €1.00 per head. As is usually the case, if only the florets are utilised in the meal planning, we can clearly see that immediately ~40% of the vegetable (effectively €0.40) is going directly into the bin but in making use of the full head of broccoli, 100% of the vegetable, its full cost of €1 is utilised.
Watch this video and reflect on all of the processes that take place within commercial kitchens where costs are incurred but on the flipside, where savings can be made.
* This is based on purchasing cost alone. It gives a zero value to the inedible fraction of food waste.
In your place of work, ask and find out:
What is the most expensive ingredient in use in the kitchen in cost per kg?
What is the cheapest ingredient in use in the kitchen in cost per kg?
Hint: you will need to find out the cost and weight of the unit of ingredient and then work out cost per kg
Example:
A 750g bag of coffee costs €12
12/750 = 0.016
0.016 x 1000 = 16
Cost per kg is €16
Take a look at these case study examples from the FoodTuristic project for more specific information on technological interventions available to maximise sales of food at risk of going to waste:
Additional Reading
Broderick, S. and Gibson, C. (2019) Reducing Commercial Food Waste in Ireland. Research 282, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wexford. Available at: http://www.epa.ie/researchandeducation/research/researchpublications/researchreports/research282.html
The Business Case for Reducing Food Waste and Food Loss for restaurants, catering and hotels. See: https://champions123.org/
Attard, J. and O Connor, T. (2022) Food loss and wastes from farming, fishing and aquaculture in Ireland, Research report 410, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wexford. Available at: https://www.epa.ie/publications/research/epa-research-2030-reports/research-410–food-loss-and-waste-from-farming-fishing-and-aquaculture-in-ireland.php