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Hutchison are educating the next generation on food waste
Nine primary schools took part in a week-long pilot study, organised by Hutchison Catering Ltd, to measure kitchen surplus and plate waste and to train the catering staff and school community on the importance of reducing food waste.
In July, nine primary schools took part in a week-long pilot study, organised by Hutchison Catering Ltd, to measure kitchen surplus and plate waste and to train the catering staff and school community on the importance of reducing food waste.
One of the pilot sites, Skelton Primary School is a small school serving 60-65 meals per day, usually a hot main dish, vegetarian main dish, jacket potatoes and desserts, plus a salad bar.
As part of the pilot, their catering manager weighed spoilage, kitchen surplus and plate waste at the school across five lunch times. After Hutchison Catering input the data into Cool Food Pro carbon calculator, they discovered that kitchen food waste averaged 2kg per day whilst 4kg a day came from plate waste. The day-to-day amounts varied depending on what was on the menu, with jacket potatoes and rice the main contributors to cooked surplus food in the kitchen. Jacket potato skins, cooked vegetables and salad were the main plate waste. This information was shared in school assemblies and newsletters to raise awareness with pupils and parents too.
Hutchison Catering used the calculator to work out that a 10% reduction of food waste by 10% at Skelton Primary would save £3 and 4kg of carbon per service. These amounts multiplied across the school year and across multiple sites will save the organisation a significant amount of money, reduce their CO₂ impact and help them achieve their net zero goals.
Following these calculations, Hutchison Catering have set a target for all nine schools taking part in the pilot study to reduce their food waste by 10% over six months, with food waste weights being monitored each month using Cool Food Pro.
At Skelton Primary, the catering manager will ensure only the quantities needed for dishes like rice and mashed potatoes are cooked. Posters will also be put up to remind pupils to only take what they will use from the salad bar. To further their awareness of food waste’s climate impact, the Cool Food Pro team delivered a whole school assembly and an interactive workshop on the real value of food and the importance of reducing food waste.
The pilot study was simple to implement in school and helped us to easily identify sources of food waste. The Cool Food Pro calculator will be great to record our progress and feed this back to the wider school community.
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