Reducing Food Waste in Foodservice
October 16, 2018 by Doreen Garelick, Dietetic Intern
Our intern Doreen attended a food waste summit for restaurants and compiled these tips to help food service operators redirect…
Challenge
Primarily franchise-operated, "Hotel Brand X" is one of the fastest growing hotel brands in the industry with over 1,500 locations nationwide. In keeping with America’s growing demand for health- and taste-conscious eating, this major player in the hospitality industry solicited SPE Certified’s assistance to expand its offering of healthy menu choices and enhance understanding of these changes to its guests.
Specific challenges:
- Food prep is limited to microwave/convection oven cooking and staff has little or no knife skills
- Breakfast buffet is self-service, making communication of how to build a healthier breakfast difficult
- While items on the menu are primarily pre-packaged and/or processed, the brand wanted to include healthier menu options that could fit into its existing model
- Current nutritional information is not easily accessible and/or meaningful to guests
Solution
Based on our capabilities and proposal, "Hotel Brand X" chose SPE Certified to help evolve its offerings to represent the best possible choice to for guests. Within our phased approach, we:
- Conducted a comprehensive review and analysis of menu for nutritional value and health safety of ingredients
- Recommended new new and alternative breakfast offerings that would allow guests to create more balanced breakfast combinations
- Implemented key health messaging to effectively communicate the new offering to internal stakeholders and guests
- Proposed longer-term recommendations for healthier dining and the continued evolution of the brand offering
Result
After reviewing, assessing and analyzing close to approximately 100 mandated Breakfast buffet items, SPE Certified provided feedback and data on items that represented significant ingredient and/or nutritional concerns using a “red/amber/green” traffic light approach.
In addition, we developed healthy concepts for both hot and cold breakfasts that could be executed within the brand's operational environment and use existing supply chain relationships. Our concepts were tested in key rollout markets, all with positive results, which are to be introduced at the National Franchise meeting. The rollout will be supported with guest communications explaining how items on the breakfast buffet can be combined for healthier options.
