Wasted Food Is Wasted Money, It’s Like Ripping Up $50 Notes

I was talking with an Economic lecturer from Macquarie University. We were discussing how much money, wastage is costing Australian businesses.

Wastage is chewing up profits.

What pricked my ears was when he asked: "Do you know % of wastage from thief, overstock and products reaching the use by date, for Woolworths compared with Aldi?"

So for Woolworths, its cost 18% for wastage & Aldi has managed to get the waste down to a rate of 4%.

When we're talking businesses of this scale, you’re talking a lot of money.

One of the reasons for big difference for Woolworths is their policy of always having products on their shelves. So they have people throughout the day going & filling the shelves & making them look they are full, which they call Facing. Which means they need to carry a lot more stock to achieve this goal.

Bakers Losing Money On Their Wastage

If I walk over to my local shopping centre at around 6:00 pm you see the Bakery bagging all the Rolls, Buns & Loaves of Bread they don't manage to sell. Then Foodbank picks all the baked goods and distributing to homeless & less fortunes people in our community.

So they have managed turn all their unsold baked product in a way of helping people in need. So this reduces the pain of waste because you're giving a helping hand.

But the reality is this is costing the Bakery lots of dough. (sorry for that pun I couldn't resist)

So every day their baking bread & at the end of the day their handling approx 3 bags of leftover bread to the Foodbank.

Think of the cost they have to buy all this extra Flour, Yeast and whatever else they are adding to their bread.

• They have to knead the dough...
• The dough needs to prove...
• Then it has to put on the trays...
• Loaded in the ovens & cooked...
• Once the bread cooked it needs cooling then removed from the trays & placed on the shelf...
• It gets worst The bakery has to pay the baker to make all the extra bread...
• There using more electricity, so that's costing more money...

So every extra bag of bread they giveaway to Foodbank is costing the baker money. Such waste eats up your profits.

That's just one local bakery imagine how bad this is when you take in account this happening across every bakery in Australia.

Wasted food is wasted money it’s like ripping up $50 Notes

RMIT University Study on food waste in the hospitality sector

RMIT University's conducted an innovative Watch My Waste business research exploring food waste in the hospitality sector. This is what their research found.

• Restaurants and cafes throw away nearly a quarter (23%) of the food they buy for their business...
• The amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by food waste going to landfill is 5.25 million metric tonnes of CO2-e every year in Australia – the same amount as that produced by the iron and steel manufacturing industries combined...
• On average 24% of food purchases… at least 40% food purchases end up in the bin...
• 317 grams food waste per cover gets thrown away, so that’s more than an average steak...
• Australians are wasting $10 billion in food every year, according to a new Rabobank report...

These figures should be sickening to any restaurant owner.

Do you know How much food your Restaurant wastes every day?

Food waste in businesses is usually created by spoilage of food, during the preparation of food, and as customer plate waste. Many foodservice businesses do not know how much food they throw away each week, and thus how much money they are wasting.