Wasted food not only means wasted money, but also possible environmental impact, and producing an excess could even be contrary to your mission. It’s easy to over-cater when you have large groups to feed, so here are some tips for reducing waste.

How to better plan for event catering

Sometimes you can reduce waste simply by thinking more critically about quantities. It’s tempting to assume that you need more than you do, because having too little food can be disastrous, but having too much doesn’t undermine an event.

However, you can cater sufficiently and still prepare food with some restraint on quantity. You could examine past events, and estimate how much was uneaten, as a proportion of the overall catering, and see if there is a consistent amount of surplus.

You can also simply calculate based on expected attendance, and add a buffer of an extra 10-20% in case of higher-than-expected attendance. That sounds obvious, but busy teams can easily find themselves serving excess food because they didn’t have time to consider how much was really required.

Using leftovers

Some leftovers are inevitable, and have a little left over means you had the right amount, because you then know that everyone had as much as they wanted.

However, if despite making a good estimate how much you needed, there is still a lot left over, you might be able to incorporate it into other events. If the food I question works for a potluck, then not only will it not go to waste, but you will also have a bonus event to enjoy.

You may be able to donate some food, either to an organisation like a homeless charity, or by inviting those in need to come and enjoy it with you. That way, you are turning a problem into a solution.

Better storage and ordering

You might be seeing food go to waste not due to preparing too much, but because the way you order and store ingredients is not sustainable.

When there is no system, or the ordering is more on-the-spot than properly planned, you can end up with excess ingredients, and items sitting in cupboards going out of date.

People can find themselves checking for ingredients, not seeing them because they’re tucked away, and ordering more unnecessarily.

However, if you have a system that keeps one person in charge of ordering, or uses techniques like digital inventory management, you can avoid duplication or confusion.

Better storage is also a solution. If you don’t have enough space to store equipment and ingredients your team will have to stuff as much as possible into the cupboards they have, which does not lend itself to a logical storage system, and inevitably ends up with ingredients buried and hidden.

To make better use of your kitchen space, contact the team at Steelplan Kitchens, who may be able to find smart design solutions for an efficient kitchen, and unlock opportunities for more storage space. Call 020 8254 0900, or email [email protected].