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Caterlink reduce food waste in school kitchens
Education catering specialists, Caterlink are working with one of their primary school sites as a pilot in Cambridgeshire to reduce the amount of food left over at the counter after lunch time service.
By looking at baseline waste values at Isle of Ely Primary School, they have set out key areas to work on that will result in less food going in the bin, with a view to roll this out across the business.
The school has reported relatively low levels of food waste after lunch service, so identifying how to reduce it even further has been tricky.
After several weigh-ins, the Cool Food Pro calculator shows an average of around 1.5kg main meal food waste, which was surplus to service.
The catering team now want to take a more in depth look at this amount by assessing the portion sizes given at lunchtimes to judge whether the site is over producing and to ensure correct recipe sheets are being used. Additionally, they’re keen to look at the site production and wastages sheets, to cross reference any food waste at end of service. Once this is done, they can then troubleshoot any findings and use Cool Food Pro resources and the Co2 calculator to take the project further by looking at food waste in the dining hall with the school.
After entering baseline data into the Cool Food Pro calculator, the school reduced cooked surplus food by 64% in December which equates to 3g of waste saved per pupil, and Co2e savings of 1.43kg, the equivalent of 827km travelled by high speed train.
The Cool Food Pro tool is very user friendly and easy to use. We have started inputting our data to the system, and we’re excited to see what impact our changes will make.
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