Food waste reduction is on a growing number of foodservice businesses’ radar. In a 2019 National Restaurant Association survey, half of responding restaurant operators said they track their food waste; 22 percent said they donate edible leftovers to charity; and 14 percent compost some of their leftovers.
Chefs, in particular, are buying into sustainability concepts; some plan menus around priorities like sourcing locally and finding creative uses for what would otherwise be tossed. In fact, zero waste cooking was number three of 140-plus trends of interest to chefs, according to the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot Culinary Forecast.
