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Spain bars and restaurants throw away between 20 and 30% of prepared food.
It is sad, but it is the reality: restoration is one of the industries that needs the most resources, and that wastes the most, it does not matter if restoration is high or low.
In 2011, a study revealed that restaurants, in Spain alone, throw away 63.000 tons of food, the equivalent of each throwing 2.5 kilos of food into the trash.
That is why in 2010 the Sustainable Restaurant Association was born: its mission is to promote and help make the restoration sustainable: reduce food waste, its environmental impact and everything related to, excuse the redundancy, sustainability.
If you want your business to be sustainable, start by informing them about it. It is not an advertising claim, being sustainable is already an urgency for everyone: restaurants and people.
But, in the meantime, we give you some ideas of how technology is already helping restaurants and how you can improve your business.
Synchronize and menu with seasonal products (that is, food grown at the same time of year that you consume it) to adapt your menu to the flow of nature and buy food at its peak.
Products in season are generally grown closer to where they are sold, which means they won’t travel the world or spoil on their way to your kitchen.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you should totally rewrite your menu every season (although you certainly can), but rather that you should change the seasonal items when possible.
2. Install a vertical garden
Vertical agriculture is growing and experiencing a time of enormous development, both for restaurants, supermarkets and even homes:
Generally they are orchards where a lot of space is not needed and that serves to supply us with fresh food. Or, where appropriate, vegetable decorations on the walls of the premises that provide freshness and life.
The Coop chain, from Denmark, will implement vertical orchards in 35 of its stores thanks to the German InFarm.
What are the advantages?
You reduce food travel to stores, land use and deforestation, in exchange for fresh vegetables and herbs.
3. Use recyclable packaging and containers
If you offer take-out food in your restaurant or have an association with home delivery companies, surely packaging is part of your day to day, not to mention the plastic bags with which you transport them.
Try to find solutions other than plastic or materials that take a long time to decompose: use cardboard or other materials.
Zume Inc. is a company that has created plant-based packaging, which costs the same as plastic, but is biodegradable.
The Israeli startup TIPA has also created fully compostable and flexible packaging, with no increase in cost compared to plastic.
4. Make your kitchen smart
We have talked a lot about the internet of things and how it helps to keep warehouses up to date, knowing the temperature of the fridge, even the barbecue, but they help more than that.
With the internet of things and modern and smart appliances you can know the energy cost of each appliance and be able to optimize its use, reducing not only the bill, but also the consumption of resources.
Likewise, the control of them in the preparation, preparation of menus and even cleaning can help us optimize resources and times.
Just investing in solar panels, geothermal energy or any alternative to diesel, wood or oil, you will reduce your impact on your environment.
5. Get certifications
Okay, let’s be selfish: sustainability also offers monetary returns. There is nothing wrong with it, of course, but that requires investing and working a lot.
Can you imagine being the first restaurant audited and certified in sustainability in your city? Sounds good, does not it?
The first restaurant certified and audited by EcoCook in Madrid was the K & Co restaurant. Read the note and see how sustainability gave it enormous visibility.
Because yes, being sustainable is good for everyone, but also for your business.