Local and sustainable: Measures for responsible handling of food

Results

• Intensive training of F&B employees in three pilot hotels in the Canary Islands F&B employees on the topic of “sustainable food”
• Measurement and analysis of food waste in the pilot hotels in the observation period from May to June 2019 in the measurement areas of storage, production waste, overproduction and plate returns
• Developing individual measures to reduce food waste by changing internal processes, behavioral patterns and improving food processing
  • Introducing show cooking stations where portions can be adjusted based on guest preferences.
  • Smaller portions on the buffet to reduce leftovers
  • Optimization of communication between the individual departments such as kitchen and service for further savings effects, e.g. monitoring by waiters how many guests have already eaten in order to keep a closer eye on the quantities of food still needed.
• The renewed measurement after implementing the measures showed a significant reduction in food waste of an average of 28%. One of the pilot hotels was even able to reduce its waste by 35%.
• Transfer of effective measures to the other 18 hotels of the FTI GROUP Meeting Point Hotels on the Canary Islands

Connection to Futouris industry project “Sustainable Food”

The successful Futouris industry project “Sustainable Food” showed that raising awareness and training employees is one of the key factors and the basis for anchoring sustainable F&B processes and sustainable behavior in the workplace. The project also recognized that continuous food waste measurements contribute to the prevention and reduction of avoidable food waste.

In its project, FTI built on the findings and measures gained in the industry project and transferred them to the FTI GROUP’s 18 meeting point hotels on the Canary Islands.

Trainings of hotel staff

In the first phase of the project, the aim was to increase the hotel employees’ awareness of the topic of “sustainable food” and to build a basis for the further project phases. For this reason, five employees from the F&B departments of the three pilot hotels Cactus Garden on Fuerteventura, Playa Bonita on Gran Canaria and Bahía Fañabe on Tenerife, as well as three other representatives from the Meeting Point Hotels hotel group, were initially trained by the project partner COMPASS.

The training includes, among other things, information on sustainable purchasing, taking into account local and seasonal food, as well as practical approaches to avoiding food waste. The trained F&B employees then pass on their knowledge to their colleagues so that all hotel employees in this area have the same level of knowledge on the subject of sustainability in the kitchen.

Avoidance and reduction of food waste

In the second phase of the project, the focus was on avoiding and reducing food waste. In a first step, food waste was collected and measured in each of the three participating Meeting Point hotels using the online analysis tool from partner United Against Waste e.V. (UAW). After an analysis by UAW, the measurements were presented to the hotel teams in a workshop and the operational processes currently used in the hotels were recorded.

Based on these results, the participating hotels worked with partner UAW to develop individual measures to reduce food waste. The measures developed were then tested in the three pilot hotels. The food waste was then measured again over a period of four weeks in order to document the success of the measures implemented and make improvements if necessary.

After completing the measurement phases, it was examined how the successfully implemented and effective reduction measures could be adopted in the other 18 hotels in the Meeting Point hotel group on the Canary Islands.

The successfully tested measures to reduce food waste were published and made available to Futouris and Futouris members.