The Imperial in Fulham, London, was one of the first pubs involved in the Mayor's scheme and has saved almost a tonne of food waste by offering different portion sizes, measuring out side dishes in cups and using leftovers for their soup of the day and items on the specials menu.
More than 200 food businesses, ranging from pubs to restaurants, have been invited to take part in the free scheme which is being funded by the Mayor of London, the European Regional Development Fund, London Waste and Recycling Board and is being delivered by the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Sustain.
Director of the Imperial pub Kate McWhirter said: “Food Save has been an eye opener and has really helped us identify precisely the areas where we were wasting food and enabled us to come up with solutions.
“We’ve changed the size of ingredients for certain dishes and have created daily delicious specials with food that would historically have gone to waste. The amount we are saving is enough to pay for another member of staff, which is fantastic.”
Research conducted by the government advisory body Waste and Resources Action Programme shows that as many as 1.3bn meals go to waste every year in the hospitality and food sector and calculates that around three quarters of food waste in the sector could have been eaten.
The Mayor’s environmental advisor Matthew Pencharz said: “With Food Save pubs, restaurants and cafes are learning simple ways to reduce the amount of food they throw away and saving thousands of pounds in the process. The Mayor now wants hundreds more businesses to get on board this great free scheme and help us dramatically reduce food waste across the city.”
The Mayor’s office hopes the initiative will divert more than 1,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill, reduce over 150 tonnes of food waste and save business over £350,000 each year.
Find out more about the Food Save scheme at http://www.thesra.org/foodsave/