It is undeniable that the restaurant business is a business that creates a huge amount of food waste each year. According to data from The Waste and Resource Action Programme, 45% of food waste occurs during cooking and 21% is caused by spoilage before customer consumption. Only 34% comes from consumer leftovers.
But many restaurant owners do not see the importance of managing wasted ingredients (Food waste). Because I thought that I couldn't serve it to customers anyway. For example, ingredients that have been trimmed (Trim), ingredients that expire during storage (Spoilage), or ingredients that are lost during cooking, forgetting that the ingredients that you see as worthless must have cost you money to exchange for them. If you can reduce the amount of raw materials you lose, that means your shop will have more chances to make a profit.
For example, if you saw a one-baht coin on the kitchen floor, would you bend down to pick it up or would you just walk past it? Of course, everyone would bend down to pick it up because even if it was just one baht, it was still money. So why is it that when it's in the form of ingredients such as meat, vegetables, or rice that fall on the floor or in the refrigerator, you don't feel as sorry as when you see it as money?
And in an era where it is increasingly difficult to increase sales per baht, efficient inventory management to minimize waste is not just an option, but something that restaurants need to focus on and give importance to.
Normally , a restaurant's net profit is around 10%-15%. If you sell for 100,000 baht, you will make a profit of around 10,000-15,000 baht. But if you can save 10,000 baht in costs, you will make a profit of 10,000 baht as well. That means that You need to spend almost 10 times more on sales than cost savings. This is a matter that the restaurant owner does not give importance to. They are busy focusing on running ads and doing various promotions. The benefits that the restaurant will gain from managing food waste can be summarized as follows:
1. Increase the cleanliness of the shop.
A restaurant that manages its ingredients will definitely be cleaner and more organized than a restaurant that has never done so. This is because the restaurant must have a systematic work plan, must constantly count stock, must take ingredients and cut them to cook new dishes, or must be careful in storing them so that they do not get bruised or hit until they are unusable, and reduce the chances of dirt building up which is a source of animals.
2. Create a good image for the store
If you can manage your raw materials to the point where there is no waste of raw materials, or what is called Zero waste, in addition to the benefits mentioned above, you can also use this as a selling point for your shop. Because these days, in addition to the taste of food, today's consumers also value social contributions. They would definitely rather support a restaurant with a social conscience than one that uses ingredients in a wasteful manner.
For example, the Thai restaurant Bo.lan has a system for managing food waste, which is mostly leftover food and various ingredients, so that nothing is left over, using a method called Upcycled Food Waste. You can listen to the interview here. YouTube And follow us on Facebook : Bo.lan
3. Helps reduce store costs
Of course, to reduce food waste, you have to start by planning to order ingredients that are consistent with their usage. The more efficient you are in planning your raw material management, the more you will save on the cost of good sold, as it reduces the chances of raw materials being used up due to over-ordering, and it may also help with labor costs as kitchen staff do not have to spend time preparing more raw materials than necessary.
4. Helps increase the store's profits.
In addition to planning your ingredients to save on ingredient costs, you can also use trimmed or leftover food. Such as ugly-shaped vegetables and fruits or scraps of pork from the slicer. Can be cooked into a new dish As in the picture, using leftover pork to make Bolognese Sauce to eat with spaghetti or to make delicious Japanese-style hamburgers can also reduce the amount of food waste and increase the opportunity for the shop to make more profit.
3. Reduce administrative burden
Planning the management of ingredients will help your kitchen staff work more conveniently, without unnecessary things getting in the way of their work. Or if you organize your refrigerator systematically by specifying which ingredients are where, you will not have to keep looking for different ingredients and reduce the chances of ingredients being pressed together, which will reduce the quality of the ingredients.
Finally, managing food waste to achieve maximum efficiency is not just the responsibility of the kitchen staff, but also includes all employees in the restaurant and the restaurant owner himself. And importantly, it is not just a one-time thing, but requires continuous planning and control to maximize the benefits for both your restaurant and your customers.
You can follow the Zero Food Waste Program to reduce costs, increase profits, and reveal the secret recipe for reducing food waste via Facebook: Makro Horeca Academy and website
To increase know-how, increase ideas for restaurant operators to develop their business to be strong and able to 'survive' in the current situation and learn how to reduce food waste which will help reduce costs and create more profit with online content about food waste and methods of managing and reducing food waste.
Click to read interesting articles from Makro HoReCa Academy.
